DYNDNS Account Subscription

If  you are using dynamic internet plan, the ISP assigned public IP to you that will be change occasionally.
This required a DDNS Services (Dynamic DNS Services) to keep track of the changing public IP in order for you to access your CCTV System from another location.

Newer DVR since 2013 supports FREE Manufacturer’s hosted DDNS services.

Prior to that if the the DVR Manufacturer doesn’t provide DDNS services, we would assist customer to setup a Free DYNDNS account for them.
However, DYNDNS stop it’s free account since May 2014 . (http://dyn.com/blog/why-we-decided-to-stop-offering-free-accounts/)
To avoid disruption to customer’s CCTV Services, we had converted those free account to paid subscription for customer without any charges to the customer.
The DYNDNS subscription had been paid by Lakson all these years since 2014 and we did not charge customers any subscription for that.

However, it is not feasible for Lakson to continue paying for these subscriptions indefinitely without any maintenance or subscription contract from the customers.
DYNDNS had also increase the subscriptionfee substantially since they stop the the free accounts in 2014.

As such, we regret to inform you that we’ll no longer be able to provide the DYNDNS DDNS Services free to customers from 1st Jan 2017.

Customers that had installed their CCTV System after 2014 or using Manufacturer’s hosted DDNS will not be affected.
Only customers using Paid DYNDNS subscription will be affected.

Out of goodwill, we will continue to provide the paid DYNDNS account to customer until 31st Dec 2016 without any charges to the customer.
Customers who are affected, the DVR model you are using is most likely an old model (more than 3 years back) and had been discontinued by the manufacturer.
The warranty for the equipment had already expired at least 2 years ago.

There’s a few option that customers choose to avoid disruption to the remote monitoring of their CCTV System.

1. Subscription
You can continue to use the DYNDNS hostname that was paid by us. However, we’ll have to levy a small subscription to make it feasible for us to continue to subscribe to DYNDNS on your behalf.
You can either pay
a. $2 per month.
b. $12 per year.
Do note that subscription paid is non refundable if subscription is cancel in between. Subscription are subjected to prevailing gst charges.

2. Upgrade your DVR
All our DVR since 2014 supports free manufacturer hosted DDNS. Upon upgrading, we’ll configure the remote viewing using manufacturer hosted DDNS services.
There’s no subscription require for that.

3. Setup your own DDNS.
Some router comes with router’s manufacturer’s provided DDNS. You can switch to that.
Alternatively, you can subscribe on your own to DYNDNS, NO-IP or various DDNS services that’s supported by your internet router.
Consult your router to identify which DDNS services it support. Some of the services provided free limited account at the moment.

4. Switch from DYNDNS hostname to manufacturer provided hostname.
We had used DYNDNS hostname for some system installed in 2014 even though the manufacturer provide their own hosting.
This is usually to simply the hostname for customer as some of the manufacturer’s DDNS hostname can be quite long.
For these system, customer just need to switch from the DYNDNS hostname to the manufacturer provided hostname.
These systems are mostly installed around in 2014.

5. Switch to Static IP Plan.
Some telco provided Static IP plan at no additional cost for some of their plan. M1 recently had a 70Mbps Fibre broadband plan @ $99/Month that comes with free static IP.
If you are on static IP plan, you can just use the static IP. There’s no need for DDNS services as it’s use to keep track of Dynamic IP Plan only.

6. Other DDNS Hostname
We had also noticed that some customers have other DDNS hostname configured in the same site for other purposes. e.g. POS Remote Access, Time Attendance System, etc.
Just switch your CCTV hostname to that hostname and it’ll work.

FAQ.
1. How would I know if I am affected ?
If you are using the following hostname, you’ll be affected.
a. ???.dyndns.org
b. ???.dvrdns.org
c. ???.ddnsmac.com

If you are using the following domain name, you are not affected.
a. ???.ddns.dvrtw.com.tw
b. ???.ddns.eagleeyes.tw
c. HIKVISION’s Device Domain Name

2. Do I need to reconfigure my router’s port forwarding setting ?
No. The port fowarding setting will not change.

3. Will the CCTV recording be affected ?
No. The CCTV system will function as normal. It’ll only affect the remote viewing as you’ll not be able to keep track of the Public IP when it changed.

4. Is there any temporary solution ?
Yes. You’ll just need someone to visit http://checkip.dyndns.com and let you know the current IP whenever it changed. Use that IP to access your CCTV System. It’ll work until the IP changed again.
For dynamic IP plan, the IP usually change once every fortnight/month or when the internet router is off and on.