DNS2Go Email Routing Gets a Lift!

Are you a DNS2Go Email Routing user? If so, have you logged into WebMail today?  

The DNS2Go Email Routing Servers have been updated to the latest version of Icewarp MailServer 10! This upgrade gives users a slick new Webmail Interface. The new AJAX-style interface allows for drag / drop functionality between folders, and message flagging.  DNS2Go WebMail  will also automatically check for new messages for you.

Additionally, groupware features have been added to DNS2Go WebMail.  Now users have the ability use the following:

Contacts
Calendar Events
Notes

Now you have the ability to access your email, calendar, contacts, and notes from one place – via any Internet connected computer or PDA.

The upgrade also provides performance improvements to our back-end server performance. All the changes made over the last few days should greatly improve your DNS2Go WebMail experience!

DNS2Go Helps a Blind Man “See the World” Through Ham Radio

In my search to find unique and cool uses for Dynamic DNS, I have to admit that this story has touched my heart.  The more I learned about it – the more it hit home to me how much of an amazing story it really is!  A story about how technology can be used to improved the quality of life for those who may not have been born with the gifts that most of us take for granted.  Nicci Nasser, my co-worker here at Deerfield is responsible for helping me uncover one of the best Dynamic DNS stories of the decade.

In a nutshell, Roy McCutcheon, a professional artist and musician that has been blind from birth - and a longtime Ham Radio Operator moved to an 8th floor apartment which prevented him from having an outside antenna for his radio.  Without an outdoor antenna – it was not practical for Roy to continue his hobby at home.  Tom Brew, his friend and fellow Ham enthusiast jumped into action and set up a remotely located radio for Roy to use, and access via DNS2Go.  Roy can now control it as his own, and it has enabled him to continue his hobby and passion as a Ham Radio operator.  Please take a moment, sit back and enjoy this great story about two gentlemen that met by chance through the common bond of Ham (Amateur) Radio and solved a problem using dynamic DNS, along with other tools.

“Hello. My name is Roy McCutcheon (Ham call sign: W3TKR) and I thought I'd write to you about the unique way I use DNS2Go. I am totally blind and live in an 8th floor apartment in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Music is my profession--I'm a piano player and singer. I lived in Nashville for ten years and played piano and sang backup for Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Randy Travis and Tanya Tucker."

Because I'm in an apartment I cannot put up any outside antennas. Being a ham radio operator that is not a good thing.  But with the help of my friend, Tom Brew K3WS, and DNS2GO, I can still be on the air.  Using Tom's Remote Base ham radio setup in College Park, Maryland, DNS2GO, and software called Ham Radio Deluxe, I can get on the air from not only my apartment but anywhere in the world through the internet.  DNS2GO allows for a static domain name so I can connect with - and control the radio through Ham Radio Deluxe.  I can do anything with the radio that I could do if I were operating it in person.  I can change frequencies, power level, modes of operation, anything through this connection. Audio is delivered to and from the radio using Skype.

You might wonder how I can operate the computer being that I am (and have always been) totally blind.  I use a screen-reading program called Window-Eyes and a Braille display.  Text is converted into Braille on my display and I can operate that way.  Isn't technology wonderful? If you have any further questions you can contact me on www.qrz.com - lookup W3TKR

I understand that Tom, K3WS has more than one remote base operation on the air and plans to add more so others may enjoy the hobby of ham radio. Data will be posted on K3WS.com in the near future.”

Tom Brew is the man responsible for helping Roy stay connected to the Ham Radio world.  His story is quite interesting as well. Read what Tom has to say:

“Hello Mike,  My history would bore you to tears but I have done every thing from US defense related contract manufacturing starting with multiplexed satellite downlink data transmissions over fiber optics in 1983 to surface mount technology building anything from TOMAHAWK Missile Launch Systems to Bradley Tank wiring harnesses. I have been involved in computers and networking since the 8088 and good old token ring :-) I have always been a "it can be done" type of person even when technology might not be there yet.

Simply, I love ham radio and only became licensed just over two years ago.  I past all three levels of testing in only two test sessions and have achieved an extra class license.  Currently I own/manage two HF remote base operations, a 2 meter repeater K3WS Repeater 147.070 in Carrollton PA, host an echolink (www.echolink.org) station connected to another 2 meter repeater in Johnstown, PA under Call Sign K3WS-L and now with DNS2Go I will be adding an echolink station to the 147.060 K3WS repeater using call sign K3WS-R and yet another HF remote base station at the 147.060 repeater site serving back up emergency communications for the East Coast to Mid West of the United States.  Visit www.k3ws.com for updates.  Frankly I do a lot and to be able to access all of this from a PC anywhere is important to me. I work in Washington DC during the week and commute home on the weekends. I can not have connections going down because of dynamic IP address changes, and I can not lose control of my widely spread equipment.

Simply DNS2Go gives me access to a reliable realization of my "current" IP address allowing Skype and Ham Radio Deluxe http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com/ to find my host radio when requested by the remote terminal/radio. I also use a Kenwood developed radio control software on my 2nd remote base that simply looks for the host radio/PC IP address when called for. Ham Radio Deluxe is the rig control and MUCH more while Skype is the TX and RX voice interface. HRD also has it's own Remote Operation Server. Cool stuff -  should look the guy up.

Personally I do what I do to help others have fun and enjoy communications in the time of peace and be ready to serve the community in the time of need.  I did not know Roy until I met him on the air. On the other hand, I talk to Dave (G0EVY) almost nightly on 3.786 LSB using a piece of wire and 100 Watts,  Dam this is fun!!!  Oh yeah he is G0EVY DAVE STROBEL Near Bromsgrove, England!  Tom Brew K3WS K3WS.com”

So there you have it – an enlightening story about two gentleman sharing a passion, enriching their lives, and using Dynamic DNS to make it all possible.  Do you have a great story?  If so – shoot me an email at CEO at Deerfield.com!

How to disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows 2008

When using DNS2Go and Windows 7, Vista or 2008 the initial install goes just fine, however its after the next reboot that may cause you some grief. Here is a Knowledge Base article that is updated with information on how to disable UAC (User Account Control) on all 3 of those operating systems.

To successfully run DNS2Go under Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 2008, the following steps must be followed:

1. Download DNS2Go
2. Install the DNS2Go client
3. Reboot the computer


After the reboot warning messages saying [5] Access is denied are likely to appear. After the reboot has finished, follow these steps to ensure the DNS2Go client will work after future reboots without warning.

1. Click on Start
2. Go to All Programs
3. Click on Deerfield.com
4. Click on DNS2Go
5. Right click on the DNS2Go client entry and select Properties
6. Click on Compatibility Tab
7. Check 'Run this program as an Administrator'


If the above does not resolve the problem then you will need to disable User Account Control (UAC)

Windows Vista

1. Click on Start and type in MSCONFIG in the search window and press Enter
2. Click on the Tools tab
3. Scroll down till you see the option named 'Disable User Account Control' Click this entry
4. Click the Launch button
5. Once the DOS window comes up saying 'The Operation Completed Successfully' type in Exit and press enter

NOTE You may need to reboot your computer to finish this action

Windows 7

1. Click on Start and type in MSCONFIG in the search window and press Enter
2. Click on the Tools tab
3. Click the option namedChange UAC Settings
4. Click the Launch Button
5. Drag the Slide bar to the bottom and click OK

NOTE You may need to reboot your computer to finish this action

Windows 2008

1. Click on Start and type in MSCONFIG in the search window and press Enter
2. Click on the Tools tab
3. Scroll down till you see the option named 'Disable User Account Control' Click this entry
4. Click the Launch button
5. Once the DOS window comes up saying 'The Operation Completed Successfully' type in Exit and press enter

NOTE You may need to reboot your computer to finish this action.

Online Radio: Dynamic DNS to the Rescue

In recent posts we’ve talked about how Dynamic DNS has helped millions of super-geeks host websites, perform remote control, and monitor web cameras.  By in large this describes the vast population of Dynamic DNS users on the planet.  However Dynamic DNS literally has tens (if not hundreds) of legitimate uses, only limited by the boundaries of the imagination.  Today – I’d like to share a small story with you about one of those less-frequently, but really cool uses of Dynamic DNS – Online Radio Stations.

Recently – we had a customer service interaction with a long term DNS2Go customer (since 2002) that is operating a small Christian radio station.  Christian radio stations - unlike their secular counterparts generally do not have large budgets derived from advertising sales, but are often donation-funded.  Finding ways of doing things on-the-cheap is a way of life for many of them.  This is the common bond which is inherent in the majority of Dynamic DNS users.  If you are a fan of saving money – and looking to eke out every ounce of value from your internet connection then you’ll be interested in what Scott Albright from Winds of Praise Broadcasting has to say.

“We're a small broadcast radio station on the Oregon Coast and we also stream our station online. So that our station's server isn't overwhelmed, we use Abacast.com to manage our two online streams. But our internet provider was always randomly changing our IP address, which meant that Abacast was suddenly thrown off the last known IP address we were using. To fix the problem, we use Deerfield.com’s DNS2Go so that our IP address is fixed and never changes, which keeps our stream flowing from our studio, to Abacast, to the net, keeping everyone happy.” - Scott Albright, GM,  Winds of Praise Broadcasting
http://www.windsofpraise.com

So there you have it – ever desired to own your own radio or TV station, but didn’t think you could afford it?  Maybe Dynamic DNS and a Content Distribution Network provider like Abacast can help you “live the dream” !

canyouseeme.org will check your ports for you!

Trying to connect to your server using DNS2Go but can't? Ever wonder if the holes you opened up in your firewall are really opened and nothing else is blocking it?

Well wonder no more! Check out CanYouSeeMe. Its a very simple yet highly effective way to find out what ports are open. It also shows you your external IP address!



Simply add in the port number you wish to test and canyouseeme will test to see if your ISP or firewall is blocking certain ports you need open. Check out the common ports post from a while back for reference on which ports you may need to check.

What exactly is Dynamic DNS, and Why Would I Need it ?

Today – I’d thought we’d take a moment and try to demystify Dynamic DNS for the common man (or woman).  For the non-technical, and even some of the technical – Dynamic DNS is not necessarily the easiest thing to understand at the surface.  Understanding the need for it may be even more of a mystery.

Let start by talking about the main tasks that people use Dynamic DNS (DDNS) for, or in other words – what problems does Dynamic DNS solve for us?  We’ll start at the top with the end all solution to a problem, and then work back down to describe how DDNS was used to solve the problem.  The most common uses for DDNS today are to gain access of a computer, or IP camera in a location that is remote to you.  IE the home, a remote office – or anywhere that you are not at the moment.  More commonly, folks are looking to use remote control programs (IE VNC or Windows Remote Desktop) to access a home computer from work, or they often looking to host a web site or IP camera at home and access it from the Internet just like any other website.

For the purposes of understanding – I would like to compare how the Internet (and DDNS) works to our modern-day telephone network, as there are many similarities.  Ok – let’s roll up our sleeves and go!

Every computer connected to the Internet has a numeric “phone number” just like every telephone does in the telephone network (worldwide).  This is called its “IP Address”; “IP” standing for “Internet Protocol”.  However, there is no published “phone book” of computer numbers, like there is for telephones.  What the Internet uses in place of a phone book is a worldwide, distributed, electronic database known as the “Domain Naming System”, or “DNS”.  Think of it this way – if you had a phone, but no phone book – you would have no way to “look up” someone’s phone number that you wish to call.  A phone would not be very useful without a phone book.  Also humans are good at remembering names, not necessarily numbers, so phone books are organized alphabetically by name.  So, if I would like to find the phone number of a person or place that I do not know, I turn to a phone book and look it up alphabetically, by name.

For the same reason – computers that desire to be “looked up” by those require a name to allow finding it to become easier.  These names that computers use on the Internet are known as their “Domain”, or “Domain Name”.  Examples of this are www.dns2go.com, and bobsmith.d2g.com.  Instead of a printed phonebook however, the find the IP Address (phone number) of a computer is provide by DNS automatically when an Internet application (like a web browser, or Remote Desktop client) performs a “lookup” while trying to connect to a domain name.

Now – we are entering the most important part of this post; understanding the difference between DNS and DDNS:  By rule in order for a computer to have a domain name it must also have what is considered a “static” (non-changing) IP Address.  What this means is that as your computer is connected to the Internet, turned off/on, and rebooted – it always has the same IP Address (just like your phone number stays the same).  You could imagine that a phone book can not work if a persons phone number keeps changing, however in the Internet world that happens quite often.  Most residential Internet service providers (IE Comcast/Charter, etc.) us a “pool” of IP Addresses to reduce costs, and offer lower cost services to their customers.  This means that periodically the computer is assigned a new number automatically through a protocol called “Dynamic Host Control Protocol”, or DHCP.  Basically, they may have a 100 customers, but maybe only 50 IP Addresses to use.  They anticipate that only 50 customers will be online at any one time, so there is never a problem.  Once a computer is done with their Internet session, they put their IP Address in the pool for someone else to use.  Are you ready?  Dynamic DNS is an added value service that allows a domain name (phone book entry) to be associated to a computers who’s IP Addresses changes from time to time.  To use the telephone analogy one more time – is would allow a telephone number to change (like with a disposable cell phone), but the phonebook entry for that person to stay the same.  It essentially allows computers using low-cost internet service to have a name just like the big boys.

We’ll go into detail more about this in future posts, but basically the DNS2Go DDNS service does this by loading a small client software on your computer which connects to the DNS2Go severs.  The DNS2Go client communicates the IP Address of the remote computer to the DNS2Go servers, and every time that IP Address changes, the users DNS entry is updated.

Why would I need it?  Two main reasons:  The first reasons is is to give you the ability to associate a canonical (common) domain name to you computer that can be easily remembered.  The second reason is it allows you to use low-cost Internet connectivity but still have the ability to also associate a domain name to your computer.  Most common uses for DNS2Go today are accessing a computer via Remote Control, Accessing IP Camera’s, and hosting web sites on a home or office computer.  Keep in mind that DDNS only provides the name look up service.  In order to perform these aforementioned task, there are more requirements to be completed.  Once configured however, DDNS can provide an invaluable service to it’s users!

Adding New Tools to the Blogging Toolbox

Hi All – Please bear with me as a I test a new tool for creating blog posts.  Seems I’m finding myself blogging more and more these days and between the blogs I am contributing to, such as MailFlow, Mail Server, 3CX, and Dynamic DNS – it’s time for me to take a step forward toward efficiency.  In addition, I will be traveling a bit these next four months and I will need a tool that will allow me to create blog posts offline, something that the various blog servers I am tied to do not allow natively.

The tool that I am testing for this blog post is called Windows Live Writer, and it is part of the whole “Windows Live” bunch of stuff that you can get free from Microsoft.  One thing that I would note is that if you only want to download and install the Writer tool – you have to be careful during the installation process and de-select all of the other bloat that is selected by default in the Windows Live Writer download manager .

So far I am impressed with it.  It makes it much easier to create a blog post, and previewing it is very easy.  It’s almost like using a mini version of MS Word to author your blog posts, but it’s way simpler.  Adding hyperlinks, pictures (or entire photo albums), videos, tables, maps, and tabs is also quite easy.  There is also a plug-in manager that allows to to install one or more of over 100 plug-in’s that are available for it. from the Windows Live Gallery.

We’ll see how it goes :-)

Recent DNS2Go Disconnect Issues

Recently many DNS2Go domains had been experiencing a constant disconnect / reconnect problem where the DNS2Go heartbeats would timeout and cause the client to disconnect. Shortly there after the client would reconnect and work for a small period of time before it disconnected again.

Yesterday afternoon we fully resolved the problem and are happy to announce that this should not be affecting anyone any longer.

If anyone has any DNS2Go connection related issues, let us know in support by clicking HERE to submit a ticket.

Hosting your own website with DNS2Go

Scenario time. You want to get a personal website up and running on your computer, but do not have an Operating System that can contain IIS.

Solution time: XAMPP. XAMPP is a great all in one solution for the smallest of websites created in pure HTML all the way up to an online ordering system with PHP and mySQL all in one. XAMPP also contains an FTP Client for uploading / downloading remote files. What else would one need for setting up a server (Besides DNS2Go)?

This blog post is going to be centered on installing XAMPP and setting up a basic HTML site. First lets discuss what XAMPP is and what it has to offer:

Multi-Platform
Apache HTTP Server
MySQL
PHP
Perl

Apache HTTP Server - This is the core WebServer with XAMPP. This is what XAMPP uses to display the pages you have created. Apache itself has been the most popular WebServer on the Internet since 1996.

MySQL - This is the Database Management System that XAMPP utilizes. You may NOT know it. But many sites that you may visit online (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr) all utilize MySQL! Its very scalable and is closely tied with PHP.

PHP - This is a popular web scripting language designed for dynamic websites. Sites like Digg, Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo all utilize PHP coding.

Perl - Perl is a very old yet still widely used programming language originally developed by a systems administrator of NASA in 1987. Many high-traffic websites use Perl extensively including Amazon.com, bbc.co.uk, Craigslist and Zappos.com.

So now we know what XAMPP stands for. But how easy is it to setup?

Once you download the installation file from here double click on the file and you will be presented with the beginning of the installation.

You will first need to specify a directory to install everything into. The default install location is c:\.

After everything is installed you will see a configuration screen allowing you to start / stop the components of XAMPP



From here you can start / stop any services you wish. Again the key to starting your own site is making sure Apache is started.

Now from here on out, we will assume you installed XAMPP to the default C:\XAMPP directory.

Now if you open up your WebBrowser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer) you can navigate to http://127.0.0.1. By default a generic webpage will come up touting all the features of XAMPP and links that provide more information.

Once this page comes up your free and clear to create your own site. Any HTML files you create will need to be saved into the c:\XAMP\HTDOCS directory.

Also be sure to verify any and all ports are opened in your router. For an overview on how to do this, check out this previous blog post

Now to use your new webpage with DNS2Go is very easy. Once you verify that the ports in the router are setup correctly. Open your Web Browser and enter in http://yourdomain.d2g.com and you should see your site!

Good luck and have fun!

New DNS2Go Sign-up Security Measures

Due to an increasing amount of sign-up abuse for DNS2Go 30-day evaluation accounts, Deerfield.com has instituted new security measures. In an effort to ensure continuity of service, and to protect the DNS2Go service from being used for nefarious purposes; the service will no longer allow "bots" to register 10's or even 100's of domains over the course of a few seconds - instead requiring new evaluation customers to allow a minimum of 10 minutes between account registrations. The new security measures will have no effect on existing customers, or legitimate evaluation customers. If you are attempting to register multiple accounts and receive the 10 minute error message, just wait a few minutes and try again.