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How to set up OpenDNS

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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  • #144
    pcwrt
    Keymaster

    As described in our blog post, as a home user, you can use OpenDNS in two ways: OpenDNS Family Shield or OpenDNS Home. The former does not need a login to OpenDNS, while the latter requires you to set up a free account with OpenDNS.

    If you decided to use OpenDNS Family Shield, it takes a single step to use OpenDNS in pcWRT: just select “OpenDNS Family Shield” in the DNS Server dropdown in a profile under Parental Control Settings.
    OpenDNS Family Shield

    If you want to use OpenDNS Home, there are five steps:

    1. Sign up for an account at OpenDNS.
    2. Set Dynamic IP Update for OpenDNS.
      • login to OpenDNS
      • click the Settings tab
      • Select your home network in the Settings for dropdown
      • Click Advanced Settings
      • Check Dynamic IP Update
        OpenDNS Dynamic IP
    3. Log in to https://www.dnsomatic.com/ with the same OpenDNS username and password. Add the OpenDNS service.
    4. Log in to pcWRT router management console, click Dynamic DNS, select dnsomatic.com from the Service dropdown, then enter your OpenDNS username and password. Click Save.
      pcWRT Dynamic DNS
    5. In pcWRT Parental Control settings, select OpenDNS Home from the DNS Servers dropdown.
      pcWRT OpenDNS Home
    • This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by pcwrt.
    #501
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    So, what if the Dynamic DNS setup page keeps throwing the following error: Failed to update Dynamic DNS, please check your network connection.

    I have quadruple checked the username and password being entered. I’m copying/pasting. I’ve tried both my username and my email address that I registered with OpenDNS to setup my account. None of them works.

    The PCWRT router IS connected to the internet and when I enter “http://myip.dnsomatic.com/” into my browser, the following is the result:

    76.255.152.118

    What now?

    #502
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    As a side note, if I enter that IP address into my browser (76.255.152.118), the browser never gets anywhere. Says this:

    This site can’t be reached

    76.255.152.118 took too long to respond.

    #503
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    Actually, never mind. Wasn’t paying attention to what that IP represented. It’s me, so the browser likely wouldn’t “go” anywhere.

    #505
    pcwrt
    Keymaster

    If you enter this into your browser, what do you get?

    http://[USERNAME]:[PASSWORD]@updates.dnsomatic.com/nic/update?hostname=all.dnsomatic.com&myip=IP

    Replace [USERNAME], [PASSWORD] and [IP] with real values. But please don’t post the values here, just the response from dnsomatic.

    • This reply was modified 8 years ago by pcwrt.
    #507
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    I’m asked to login again.

    An “auth” popup comes up.

    #508
    support
    Keymaster

    Sorry, the URL should be: https://[USERNAME]:[PASSWORD]@updates.dnsomatic.com/nic/update?hostname=all.dnsomatic.com&myip=<IP Address>, i.e., https instead of http. Either one works, but https provides more security.

    An auth dialog means USERNAME & PASSWORD provided are not authenticated by dnsomatic. USERNAME is usually your email address registered with OpenDNS.

    You might also want to check the WAN ip address on the pcWRT router. Open the Status page on pcWRT router management UI. Does the WAN ip match the IP address you got from dnsomatic?

    #509
    support
    Keymaster

    Do you still have problems? In fact, if the username or password is wrong in your DDNS configuration, the error message should be ‘Failed to update Dynamic DNS, please check your username and password and try again.’.

    What’s the Internet IP address as seen on the Status page? What are the DNS 1 and DNS2 values on the same page?

    #510
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    There is no WAN IP or DNS 1 & 2 on my status page. This is what’s there:

    Internet
    Type: dhcp
    Address: 192.168.1.203
    Netmask: 255.255.255.0
    Gateway: 192.168.1.254
    DNS 192.168.1.254
    Connected: 9h 32m 14s
    Wireless
    SSID: pcwrt
    Mode: Master
    Channel: 6 (2.437 GHz)
    Encryption: WPA2-PSK

    Connected Devices
    Hostname IP Address MAC Address Network Signal
    Dads-Business-Laptop 192.168.10.195 DC:53:60:16:44:05 Master “pcwrt” -77 dBm

    #511
    support
    Keymaster

    Thanks for the info. That’s a strange problem. Please send us a copy of your configuration, we’ll investigate further. Here’s how:
    1. Login router management console.
    2. Click System in the Settings page.
    3. In the Backup/Restore Settings section, click the Backup button.
    4. Save the file and send to [email protected].

    Sorry for the problems and thanks for your patience!

    #512
    klawncare1239
    Participant

    Sending my backup file to you as I type this.

    #519
    SafeTay
    Participant

    Hello,

    I have the same problem. It has to do either with the password length or the characters in the password. OpenDNS allows a wide range of special characters and up to 256 character password length. The only way I could get this to work was by reducing the password length in OpenDNS and reducing the special characters. As a note, I use Keepass2 for my password generation. A 256-bit password with special characters, upper, lower, and numbers will create this issue.

    Looking forward to a bug fix! Thanks!

    #521
    support
    Keymaster

    @SafeTay Thanks for your feedback. Our tests showed that dnsomatic fails authentication when the password contains either the apostrophe (‘) or the quote (“). In that case, the router reports “Failed to update Dynamic DNS, please check your network connection.”, which is a wrong message. We’ll fix the error message in a future update. We’ll also see if there’s a way to report the error to dnsomatic. It’s worth noting that the authentication bug does not exist in dnsomatic web interface, only the update API.

    We’ll also follow up with a long password test. Thanks for your input!

    #600
    corinnacs
    Participant

    I’m having the same problem. Can I email you my backup info too?

    #601
    support
    Keymaster

    @corinnacs Yes, please.

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