Help setting up ddclient?

AndrewM

New Member
I'm trying to set up ddclient and am getting the following errors. I redacted some stuff that's in brackets.


Aug 23 11:45:26 debianserver ddclient[10662]: FAILED: updating (URLs): no response from dynamic.zoneedit.com
Aug 23 11:50:26 debianserver ddclient[10675]: WARNING: file /var/cache/ddclient/ddclient.cache, line 4: Invalid Value for keyword 'ip' = ''
Aug 23 11:50:26 debianserver ddclient[10687]: WARNING: last updated <never> but last attempt on Fri Aug 23 11:45:26 2019 failed.
Aug 23 11:50:26 debianserver ddclient[10687]: WARNING: skipping update of (URL) from <nothing> to (IP)
Aug 23 11:50:26 debianserver ddclient[10697]: WARNING: Wait at least 5 minutes between update attempts.


My ddclient.conf file is:

protocol=zoneedit1
use=web, web=dynamic.zoneedit.com/checkip.html
server=dynamic.zoneedit.com
login=(username)
password=(zoneedit DYN token)
(URL)
daemon=3600

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong here?

Thanks,
Andrew
 

zesupport

Moderator
Staff member
Hi Andrew, the issues with DYN updates on our end have been resolved if you can please give this another try.
 

inspector71

New Member
FWIW, I managed to get ddclient running with zoneedit today, on a Raspberry Pi (RPi):

Bash:
> uname -a
Linux 5.10.52-v7+ #1441 SMP Tue Aug 3 18:10:09 BST 2021 armv7l GNU/Linux
> cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian

... running DietPi, but not using their dietpi-ddns facility (at this stage).

Instead, I'm using the OS package installed via ...

apt install ddclient

... and then filling in a wizard-like debconf series of screens presented during installation.

That was not enough though, as the Raspberry Pi is running inside the LAN, also known as behind the router, and the prompt asking for the network interface ddclient should use to determine the dynamic WAN IP is clearly intended for when ddclient is running on a device actually receiving the dynamic WAN IP directly. Not a device running inside a LAN, behind a router, as is the case in my scenario (the TP-Link router in use only supports a duopoly of noip and dyndns ... no custom settings allowed! Screw you, TP-Link!!!). Thus, the examples given are eth0, ppp and, I think, a WiFi interface.

Instead, what is required as the 'interface' is actually the keyword web. This means ddclient will request the WAN IP from a remote web server running a web page designed to respond with your dynamic WAN IP. Such services are available for free from various sources. To get my scenario working, I used the ipify service via the:

api.ipify.org

... subdomain.

You can preview a browser-intended version of how the ipify service handles web requests to that domain using this address:

https://api.ipify.org

However ddclient only requires the domain name (may not actually work with the https:// protocol prefix however I did not verify this).

Unlike TP-Link, ddclient includes a predefined profile for zoneedit, in addition to a custom profile option.

Most fiddly of all? Trying to manually add that web domain as the source of ddclient's web 'interface' dynamic WAN IP identification.

Why?

On this system, perhaps all systems using the Debian APT ddclient package, the ddclient package installation places the ddclient configuration file - ddclient.conf - in the /etc/ folder. However, the documentation states the configuration file would be located in /etc/ddclient/.

Very misleading!

Here is my /etc/ddclient.conf file (edited to obscure private details, of course):

Bash:
> cat /etc/ddclient.conf
# Configuration file for ddclient generated by debconf
#
# /etc/ddclient.conf

protocol=zoneedit1
use=web
web=api.ipify.org
server=dynamic.zoneedit.com
login=(username)
password=(DYN auth token)
your-sub-domain

I hope this helps someone get ddclient going for themselves.
 
Last edited:
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