Dynamic IP Updater

Domain name and host record

Visit a provider like NoIP and DynDNS for your free DNS service and tertiary domain. Then set up your host record:

You might already have one

Before you set out for the site of your dynamic DNS provider, check your distro media and router to see whether updater is available. Users of DynDNS might find updater already built into their routers or come as a package of their distro.

Download

Visit the website of your dynamic IP service provider and look for a client which will run on Linux. It may come as tarball or script usually written in Perl, Python, Java or PHP. Follow the instruction from your provider and test run it. Quite often, Linux IP clients are not service daemons (self-starters). You can just leave the client files where they are if you do not want to use them anymore.

Automate it

You can use cron to schedule the IP updater to run at predetermined intervals. The easy way is to set up a cron job with Webmin.

Alternative

If you find the updater a bother, install the Windows-based one on a Windows machine attached to the same local net as the Linux host. It is not necessary to update dynamic IP from the same host as your server.

More alternative

Alternatively, you can visit your provider's site and do a manual update. If you choose this method, you might as well take note of the URL (could be more than one). You might be able do later updates using the command:

Press the q key to quit.
$ lynx <URL>

Maintenance

Finally, a nag on dynamic IP addresses. Keep your modem and router powered up at all time. There is no better way than that if you want to maintain reliable DNS. Observe the rules of your dynamic DNS provider and be a considerate user. You might contribute to discontinuation of free services if you spam your provider with updates. Also, do not send "heartbeat pings" to just any host you can conveniently think of.