ZyXEL Communications 2304R-P1 What is BOOTP/DHCP?, What is DDNS?, When do I need DDNS service?

Prestige 2304 Support Notes

What is BOOTP/DHCP?

BOOTP stands for Bootstrap Protocol. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Both are mechanisms to dynamically assign an IP address for a TCP/IP client by the server. In this case, the Prestige Internet Access Sharing Router is a BOOTP/DHCP server. Win95 and WinNT clients use DHCP to request an internal IP address, while WFW and WinSock clients use BOOTP. TCP/IP clients may specify their own IP or utilize BOOTP/DHCP to request an IP address.

What is DDNS?

The Dynamic DNS service allows you to alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname, allowing your computer to be more easily accessed from various locations on the Internet. To use the service, you must first apply an account from several free Web servers such as WWW.DYNDNS.ORG.

Without DDNS, we always tell the users to use the WAN IP of the 312 to reach our internal server. It is inconvenient for the users if this IP is dynamic. With DDNS supported by the Prestige, you apply a DNS name (e.g., www.zyxel.com.tw) for your server (e.g., Web server) from a DDNS server. The outside users can always access the web server using the www.zyxel.com.tw regardless of the WAN IP of the 312.

When the ISP assigns the Prestige a new IP, the Prestige updates this IP to DDNS server so that the server can update its IP-to-DNS entry. Once the IP-to-DNS table in the DDNS server is updated, the DNS name for your web server (i.e., www.zyxel.com.tw) is still usable.

When do I need DDNS service?

When you want your internal server to be accessed by using DNS name rather than using the dynamic IP address we can use the DDNS service. The DDNS server allows to alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname. Whenever the ISP assigns you a new IP, the Prestige sends this IP to the DDNS server for its updates.

What DDNS servers does the Prestige support?

The DDNS servers the Prestige supports currently is WWW.DYNDNS.ORG where you apply the DNS from and update the WAN IP to.

What is DDNS wildcard?

Some DDNS servers support the wildcard feature which allows the hostname, *.yourhost.dyndns.org, to be aliased to the same IP address as yourhost.dyndns.org. This feature is useful when there are multiple servers

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