DynDNS provides an awesome free service - a hostname that points at your home server. Most of us have a dynamic IP provided by our internet service provider, and running a home server or a game server can be a pain whenever your IP address should happen to change. DynDNS allows you to create a hostname that will point to your dynamic IP, making sure it will always be available (well, almost always).

Here's how to get started

Register an account with DynDNS.

After logging in, create a new hostname

DynDNS Services

Configuring host

Install the ddclient software sudo apt-get install ddclient

Select DynDNS

Configuring ddclient

Enter the hostname you created in step 2

Configuring ddclient (cont)

Make a few changes to the ddclient.conf file

sudo nano /etc/ddclient.conf

# /etc/ddclient.conf
daemon=600 
syslog=yes
pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid
protocol=dyndns2
use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com/, web-skip='IP Address'
server=members.dyndns.org
login=username
password=password

# my hostnames
beetledev.ath.cx

Save changes and enjoy!

sudo ddclient