How to setup NOIP in Linux for managing dynamic IP address

What is NOIP?

Dynamic IP addresses are a real headache for hackers and network engineers. Once the modem restarts, 99 % of the time you will be getting a new public IP address which means any hack you had previously done is no longer valid since your IP has changed.  What if you could connect with something that doesn’t change no matter how many times the IP address changes? That’s where NOIP comes into the picture

NOIP is a dynamic DNS service that constantly maps your IP public address to the target device with a free hostname. It updates at regular intervals of time. This is done by a client software called DUC or Dynamic Update Client. Now instead of mapping the hack to your public IP, you map it with the hostname you select.

So to set up this dynamic update client in Linux you need to perform the following steps

Now, let’s start working.

To use DUC in any Linux distro, you will need to download and install the NOIP client. But before that make sure you prepare a NOIP account as shown below

You will be able to install No-IP.com’s DUC on any Linux-based operating system in just a few minutes with Terminal and the following commands.

Step 1: We need the dynamic IP address for DUC which will update with the change in public IP, so go to noip.com and sign up. After signing up log in to your account, as shown in the image below.

Click on create Hostname and enter any name for the host. Click on save the host.

Step 2: Now open a Linux terminal and log in as root. You can become the root user from the command line by entering “sudo -s” followed by the root password of your system.

Step 3: Once you are root, start typing the following commands in the same order as shown below:

cd /usr/local/src/

wget http://www.no-ip.com/client/linux/noip-duc-linux.tar.gz

tar xf noip-duc-linux.tar.gz

cd noip-2.1.9-1/

make install

Step 4: You will be now prompted to log in with your No-IP account username and password which you had created in step 1.

The output will be something like this:

Auto configuration for Linux client of no-ip.com.

Please enter the login/email string for no-ip.com  nightfury
Please enter the password for user 'nightfury' *********

Only one host [nightfury007.ddns.net] is registered to this account.
It will be used.
Please enter an update interval:[30]
Do you wish to run something at successful update?[N] (y/N)

If you get errors like  “make not found” or “missing GCC”, then you do not have the GCC compiler tools installed on your machine which is required for the client to work as intended. You will need to install these in order to proceed with the port forwarding setup.

Step 5: To Configure the Client

As root again (or with sudo) issue the below command:

• /usr/local/bin/noip2 -C

(dash capital C in this command will create the default config file)

You will then be prompted for your No-IP username and password, as well as the hostnames you wish to update for the port forwarding setup. Be careful; one of the questions is “Do you wish to update ALL hosts.” If answered incorrectly, this could affect hostnames in your account that are pointing at other locations. If you’re just setting up a new service, then there is no need to worry however if you have previous setups don`t say yes to update all host’s questions.

Now that the client is installed and configured, you just need to launch it. Simply issue this final command to launch the client in the background:

• /usr/local/bin/noip2

Read the README file in the no-ip-2.1.9 folder for instructions on how to make the client run at startup. This varies depending on what Linux distribution you are running, so the read me the file is a better guide

You also need to open the port on your router so that the dynamic update can make your hacks persistent on the internet.

The DUC client should now be installed on the Linux machine.

You might like: How to hack wifi in windows