Dynamic DNS

Dynamic DNS (DDNS) automatically updates a DNS record with the firewall’s current public IP address. This is useful when your ISP changes your IP dynamically, because you can still reach the firewall using a stable hostname instead of tracking the IP.

Example use cases:

remote access to the Web UI / SSH
VPN endpoints (OpenVPN/WireGuard/IPsec) using a hostname
services published via reverse proxy or port forwards

Supported providers

NexappOS supports many providers out of the box, including:

Cloudflare
DigitalOcean
DNSpod
FreeDNS (afraid.org)
Gandi
GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
GoDaddy
LuaDNS
No-IP
NS1
One.com
PowerDNS (Pdns)
Route53 (AWS)
TransIP

If your provider is not listed, you can still configure it with a custom update URL.

Prerequisites

Before configuring DDNS, make sure you have:

a NexappOS firewall with working Internet access
an account on your DDNS provider
a registered domain/hostname on that provider
API credentials (token / key / password) that allow DNS updates

General configuration steps (CLI)

DDNS is configured using UCI from the terminal. The workflow is always the same:

Update and list available providers

ddns service update
ddns service list-available

Create a DDNS service entry Fill in the fields required by your provider:

service_name: provider identifier from the list
username: username or client ID (if required)
password: password or API key/token
domain / lookup_host: hostname to update
interface: interface used to detect public IP (usually wan)
enabled: enable the service

Example template:

uci set ddns.myddns=service
uci set ddns.myddns.service_name="ddnsprovider.com"
uci set ddns.myddns.domain="host.yourdomain.net"
uci set ddns.myddns.lookup_host="host.yourdomain.net"
uci set ddns.myddns.username="your_user_name"
uci set ddns.myddns.password="your_api_key"
uci set ddns.myddns.interface="wan"
uci set ddns.myddns.enabled="1"
uci commit ddns

Restart the DDNS service

/etc/init.d/ddns restart

Notes & best practices

Ensure the chosen provider plan supports API access and dynamic updates.
Double-check credentials: most DDNS failures are caused by typos in tokens or usernames.
If you want logging in syslog, enable it in your service entry:

uci set ddns.myddns.use_syslog='1'
uci commit ddns
/etc/init.d/ddns restart

Some providers support wildcards or multi-record updates; check your provider docs for extra fields.

Example: FreeDNS (afraid.org)

Hostname: sanchio.crabdance.com Username: myuser Password: mypass

uci set ddns.afraid=service
uci set ddns.afraid.service_name='afraid.org-v2-basic'
uci set ddns.afraid.lookup_host='sanchio.crabdance.com'
uci set ddns.afraid.domain='sanchio.crabdance.com'
uci set ddns.afraid.username='myuser'
uci set ddns.afraid.password='mypass'
uci set ddns.afraid.interface='wan'
uci set ddns.afraid.ip_source='network'
uci set ddns.afraid.ip_network='wan'
uci set ddns.afraid.use_ipv6='0'
uci set ddns.afraid.enabled='1'
uci set ddns.afraid.use_syslog='1'
uci set ddns.afraid.check_unit='minutes'
uci set ddns.afraid.force_unit='minutes'
uci set ddns.afraid.retry_unit='seconds'
uci commit ddns
/etc/init.d/ddns restart

Custom provider example: dyndns.it

If a provider is not listed, you can define an explicit update URL.

Hostname: nstest1.freeddns.it Username: nstest1 Password: nstest

uci set ddns.dyndns_it=service
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.enabled='1'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.lookup_host='nstest1.freeddns.it'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.domain='nstest1.freeddns.it'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.username='nstest1'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.password='nstest'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.interface='wan'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.ip_source='network'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.ip_network='wan'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.force_interval='24'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.force_unit='hours'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.check_interval='10'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.check_unit='minutes'
uci set ddns.dyndns_it.update_url='http://update.dyndns.it/nic/update?hostname=[DOMAIN]&user=[USERNAME]&password=[PASSWORD]'
uci commit ddns
/etc/init.d/ddns restart

Using CLI

If preferred, you can set up DDNS there instead of CLI.

Nexapp - Dynamic DNS