What is DDNS and Why Do I need it?

DDNS stands for Dynamic Domain Name System.  This is a very-tekkie discussion of DDNS, in more detail than previously presented.

Each website, FTP site, device, and even your cable modem, has an Internet ADDRESS. This address is how the Internet locates nodes, aka computers, or routers, or anything else that might hang on a CAT-V cable [1].

The numbers aren't *too friendly* however. They're hard to remember and for the most part, meaningless as far as their significance. Think about it. If your friend says 

Did you check out my latest pix on 66.220.149.11??

You'll be like HUH? But if they instead say

Did you check out my latest pix on Facebook??

THEN you'll know what they mean right? Well on the INTERNET, FACEBOOK is the domain NAME (at least part of it), and 66.220.149.11 is the Internet address for that name. This might be called the IP Address, or even the WAN address.

So they have to have a system that can TRANSLATE a name into an address,  so when you enter FACEBOOK into your browser, it knows to send you to 66.220.149.11 , and that's what a DNS or Domain Name Server, does. This is called NAT, or Network Address Translation.

So that's a little bit of background for you.  Now what about DYNAMIC DNS (DDNS)?

You actually could get a NAME and a FIXED IP ADDRESS [1] for your camera, and never worry about DDNS. But for most of us, that's impractical. A fixed address is expensive. So instead let's look at DDNS.

Your CABLE or other type of provider temporarily assigns an IP address to you. They own a pool of FIXED UP Addresses, which they dole out to their subscribers on a round-robin or other type of sequence. So when you woke up this morning, your IP address could potentially be different than it was when you went to sleep.

In practice they don't really change that often. If your router hasn't been off line, its possible to have the same IP Address for weeks, or months. In that scenario, you might consider just using the current IP, not worrying about DDNS, and resign yourself to having to adjust it ever month or two. Or six.

But if you want your Camera to automatically be ADJUSTED to use the new IP address, then that's where DDNS shines.

Here is how it works. 

You sign up for a DDNS service. There are dozens. Some are free, some charge $1-2 a month, others more. One caveat- your selections may be limited by your camera or router, read on..

Next, you need to configure one of your devices to *talk to* your DDNS provider. You can locate DDNS settings in your router, camera, and even on some computers.

Then you configure it to tell your DDNS provider about your IP address. When it changes, it tells the DDNS provider, and it adjusts your NAT (Network Address Translation) so someone who types in tammycam.com ALWAYS finds you, even if your address changed.

For details on settings at both the DDNS provider and your router or camera, you'll have to consult the associated guides. They're all different. 

But the part to remember is that many devices can only support CERTAIN DDNS providers. You'll find the list in that guide. Be sure to select one in the list. The other important thing is that you only need ONE device to communicate to the DDNS provider, so you can select it based on which is easiest to configure, which is always-on (like your router), etc.

With lots of study and some trial and error, you can set-and-forget this and never have to worry about it again (hopefully!)..

[1] Most network connections are made with CAT-V cable. The connectors look like really big telephone jacks (remember those?)..

[2] a FIXED IP Address is one that stays the same, and essentially you OWN (or, more often, lease) it. A fixed address is expensive, and for most consumers, not used.

What Can My IP Camera DO Besides Showing me Images?

Good question.

If you're not a surveillance company glued to a wall of monitors, you probably don't have time or patience to sit and watch your IP Camera 24x7. And if you watch even an hour a day, you're only monitoring about 4% of the time.

But you're in-luck (probably), because many contemporary IP camera offer tools for round-the-clock monitoring. Here are some:

1. Motion Detection (MD): Many IP cameras can detect motion, which in-turn triggers an event.  An event might be turning on a siren, or texting a photo to your phone. 

Motion-detection can be difficult to *dial-in* however, since you have to set thresholds. You have to instruct your camera how much of the image has to change, in how little a time-span, to trigger. With pets walking about, branches waving in the wind, rainstorms, too-low a threshold can produce false triggers. And too high can miss real events. 

So MD is useful but you may have to experiment to get the camera isolated from false triggers, and also experiment with thresholds.

2. FTP: your IP camera may support FTP, where an image is sent to a disk on some interval, or on a trigger like MD. Like a *poor-man's-DVR* this is essentially a slide-show view of the scene.

Some FTP systems can also transfer video clips, or even audio clips.

3. EMAIL: Your camera can email you. This service can be difficult to set up as it seems to require an SMTP(Mail Service) server, but it can be done with some config settings. If you set up your pop-client on your PC, you can probably set up this.

4. Two-way audio: You can broadcast audio TO The camera area with your cellphone or PC microphone. Why would you want to do THAT? Say Fido has been getting into your garden digging it up while you're at work? You set up MD on the garden, get an alert, look at your cell, and THERE Fido, digging. 

You get into your IP Camera phone ap, press TALK, and say GET OUT OF THERE FIDO!

FIDO looks totally confused, and wanders off.

Of course there are far more sinister activities you can intercept, such as a burgler. I'm thinking Mr Burgler hears STAY RIGHT THERE, I'M LOADING THE SHOTGUN out of the darkness, he's headed for the nearest door!

Even though all of these utilities can be very useful and even life or property-saving tools, I expect with the explosion underway we'll see even more utility of IP Camera like interfaces to social media, podcasting, etc.

Have fun!