Connecting to web services on your home Mac over the internet can be a pain, especially if you’re having to remember your home's IP Address. This can be solved with a free solution from DynDNS. In this how-to, we’ll show you how to easily create a domain name for your home use (using DynDNS), allowing you to easily connect back to your home computers without using an IP Address.

What does DNS stand for?

DNS (or Domain Name Server) is a server that translates between the domain names that you type into your browser (i.e. “maclife.com”) into an IP Address of the server that the website is located on. Domain names are used because it’s hard to remember 173.203.217.57, but it’s easy to remember MacLife.com. You can still type in 173.203.217.57 into your browser to get to the site, but it’s not very convenient. This won’t replace your IP Address, it simply enhances it.

What’s the point?

Home IP Addresses tend to change (unless you’ve got a static Internet address). Because of this, you may not always have your address handy to connect back home to your SSH-enabled Mac. DynDNS is a free service and application that will sit on your home Mac, checking to see if your Internet IP address has changed, and then will update your domain name to reflect those changes. It also gives you a free simple domain name to remember to connect back to your home Mac. Instead of having to remember your home address is 12.31.35.34 (which changes), you can simply remember mydomain.dyndns.org (which updates to reflect the current address).

This can be used in conjunction with many of the article’s we covered in the past, including:

- How To Enable SSH on Your Mac
- How To Remotely Monitor Your Transmission Torrent Downloads
- How to Use FTP Through the Command Line in Mac OS X
- Create a Cheap Server Using the Regular Snow Leopard Install

What You’ll Need:

>> Free DynDNS.com Account
>> Mac with always-on Internet connection (DSL, Cable, etc.)

1. Register Your DynDNS Domain Name

The first step to setting up DynDNS on your home Mac is to register for a free account, then head to the homepage of DynDNS.com.

From the home page, locate the “Free Domain Name” box and specify a name that you’d like to use to connect to your home computers. From the dropdown box, specify a suffix, then click Add.

You will then need to go through a “checkout process” where the domain gets added to your account. This is free, however, and will show up as such on the checkout screen.

After you checkout, you’ll need to click the Activate Services button.

Click the domain name in your account to be brought to the Modify Hostname screen. On this screen, ensure the “Host with IP Address” option is selected under the Service Type section, then click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

From here, the domain name is set up, but we will need to install the DynDNS updater on your Mac to keep the domain name up-to-date with your current Internet IP Address.

2. Install the DynDNS Updater

Download the DynDNS Updater from the DynDNS.com website, then install it. This process is straightforward and done just like any other application install on the Mac. Once you have completed the install, go to the next step to start and login to the updater application.

3. Log into the DynDNS Updater

After you have installed the DynDNS Updater tool, launch the application from the Applications directory on your Mac.

After launching, the updater will ask for your username and password (if it doesn’t, click Accounts > Add Account). Type in the username and password that you used to register a free account on DynDNS.com, then click OK.

4. Enable updating and using your domain name

After logging into DynDNS, the domain names that are registered to your account should appear in the sidebar of the application. Click the one that you just registered, then check the box labeled “Enable updating for this host.”

Next, in the drop-down box for Interface, select “Web-based IP detection.” The DynDNS updater will then begin updating your domain name to reflect your current IP Address.

From here, you can now use the domain name address instead of your IP Address to access things like an SSH-enabled Mac. For instance, you can now type (replacing the underlined portion with your address): ssh corybohon2.dyndns.org to connect to your Mac at that address.

While the free DynDNS accounts don't give you a lot of power, they can definitely save you from the headache of remembering your home IP Address.

Follow this article’s author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.