In the next several months I’m going to have to change from a fixed IP over to a dynamic IP. It doesn’t look like this is a super common event because the only threads I saw on it are several years old and based on older versions of FreePBX. From what I read, people seemed to have trouble when trying to do this from inside FreePBX and it was suggested that a VPN be used and an DDNS happen in the router instead of attempting to set up FreePBX for DDNS.
Does DDNS actually work in FreePBX and where could I found a guide or assistance in how to make the conversion? Again, I have a few months but I don’t see a reason to wait until the last moment and then panic when I can start to panic now.
If the address is stable, it should be indistinguishable. If it is unstable, you will need to use chan_pjsip, and there will be an outage for some time after the address changes. You will probably lose in progress calls, and you will have to wait for DNS manager to repoll for the address and subsequent outgoing registrations to come due.
I doubt the IP will change often but they do change on a non-fixed IP. But since I’m currently on a fixed IP I know I need to make changes in at least a couple of places.
In System Admin/DDNS I’ll need to check the Enable DDNS Service
I’ll need to set the update interval. Is there a downside to updating often? ie why would you not choose a frequent update to minimize the risk of the server being offline?
I think I must use the External DDNS Name instead of an IP address in all remote phones to connect?
I think I must use the FQDN from above in the Settings/Asterisk SIP Settings NAT settings/External Address
Are there other changes I’ll need to make?
And why are some posts saying it’s better to create a VPN with the router instead?
In my company, the freePBX server has a sub domaine name and can be resolved by the DNS, to open the web application for pbx, I also use the sub domaine instead of the ip adress.
In the worst case it should be possible to create a small script in bash to automaticly update the server.
I say that because like two weeks ago my server was not working correclty, the cause : the routeur was turned off for a moment and when turned on the ipv4 adress was changed, it took me too much time to find why it was not working.
So do you just list your sub-domain in the fields any time FreePBX or Asterisk asks for an IP address? It accepts that?
I’ve always had it on a Fixed IP with it’s own sub-domain but as I’m planning to sell my domain name soon I can’t continue with the domain and I’m also moving to a non-static IP so that compounds my problem a bit. Having never run FreePBX without a domain or without a fixed IP I’m trying to make sure I have things figured out before I make the move.
I have used a DDNS with Freepbx. I setup a script on the system to run every minute to update the DNS. I use freeddns.org . Enter that url into SIP settings. Works fine