IPv4 DDNS for dns.he.net on Cisco IOS

As dyndns has reduced the capabilities of the free service, I looked around for other free providers of Dynamic DNS service.

After testing several I decided to move my DNS hosting to Hurricane Electric as then domains that require dynamic hostnames can be managed with dynamic A records instead of the CNAME required when using the dyndns free service.

The configuration as below is for IPv4 dynamic addressing as provided by most Internet Service Providers on ADSL or Cable (broadband) connections when using the free DNS and DDNS service as provided by dns.he.net

The below has been tested on a Cisco 1812 running c181x-advipservicesk9-mz.151-4.M4.bin on a BT FTTC connection which uses PPPoE over VDSL where the PPPoE interface has a dynamic address. It has also been tested on a Cisco 877 running c870-advipservicesk9-mz.151-4.M4.bin on several other UK ADSL and ADSL2+ connections

It does not cover changing the IPv4 termination address for a he.net IPv6 Tunnel.

In Global mode

ip ddns update method <method-name>
                       HTTP
                        add http://<f.q.d.n>:<password>@ipv4.dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=<h>&myip=<a>

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Then on the dynamic addressed interface (usually Dialer 1)

 ip ddns update hostname <f.q.d.n>
                       ip ddns update <method-name> host ipv4.dyn.dns.he.net

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<method-name> This is the name that you want to give the DDNS update, I usually use dyn.he.net
<f.q.d.n> This is fully qualified domain name that is configured for Dynamic DNS on the dns.he.net control panel
<password> This is the password for the fully qualified domain name that is configured for Dynamic DNS on the dns.he.net control panel
<h> This is an internal Cisco IOS variable for the hostname that it gets from the configuration on the interface
<a> This is an internal Cisco IOS variable for the dynamic address on the interface  

Presuming that the method name is dyn.he.net, the hostname being used is router.domain.com and the password is SuperSecretPassword the completed configuration commands should look something like this

In Global mode

ip ddns update method dyn.he.net
                       HTTP
                        add http://router.domain.com:SuperSecretPassword@ipv4.dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=<h>&myip=<a>

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Then on the dynamic addressed interface (usually Dialer 1)

 ip ddns update hostname router.domain.com
                       ip ddns update dyn.he.net host ipv4.dyn.dns.he.net

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It is not possible to copy and paste all of the config directly into a console session as the line that begins with "add" contains a question mark.

To enter a question mark <?> in IOS press and hold ctrl, press v, release both then press ?