Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of questions can I ask here?

Everything related to getting the most from your DynDNS.com services.
As long as your question is:

• detailed and specific
• written clearly and simply
• of interest to at least one other person somewhere

... it is welcome here. No question is too trivial or too "newbie". You can ask about which services you need to accomplish a particular problem, or how to configure those services on DynDNS.com. You can ask about things like port forwarding, how to setup packages on your DynDNS.com Spring Server VPS, or how to properly configure your mail settings for virus and spam scanning.

Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. If you end up asking a question that has been asked before, that is OK and deliberately allowed. Other users will hopefully edit in links to related or similar questions to help future visitors find their way.

It's also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own question, but pretend you're on Jeopardy: phrase it in the form of a question.

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!

Where is the forum that used to be at http://dyndnscommunity.com?

We've moved that forum to http://forum.dyndnscommunity.com. We found that many of our new users were finding it difficult to find answers to some common questions on the old forum. To help folks out, we launched this site (yes, the one you're looking at right now!) in January, 2010 to make it easier for users to submit their questions and find answers.

What's different between the old forum and this new one?

Our old forum was a discussion board. The new forum supports a great interface for voting on questions and answers. Users can now earn reputation in the DynDNS.com Community through their contributions. Badges are awarded to those members of the DynDNS.com Community that help grow the community. We also display service badges on each user's profile page to show to the world their areas of DynDNS.com expertise.

How can I earn a DynDNS.com Service Badge?

Simply purchase the associated service on DynDNS.com, and your badge will proudly display in your profile.

How can I display my DynDNS.com Service Badges on my profile?

If you logged in to the forum using the DynDNS.com OpenID server by clicking the DynDNS.com logo on the login page, everything should be configured for you. If you are using a different OpenID provider, simply set your display name in the DynDNS.com Community to be the same as on DynDNS.com.

How can I disable showing my DynDNS.com Service Badges?

Change your display name in the DynDNS.com Community to something other than your DynDNS.com username.

What other DynDNS.com account information can be shown on the DynDNS.com Community profile pages other than DynDNS.com Service Badges?

Currently, only how long you've been a DynDNS.com user. The following options are available for display:

• Level: DynDNS.com Newcomer (less than a month)
• Level: DynDNS.com Skilled (less than a year)
• Level: DynDNS.com Aficionado (more than a year)
• Level: DynDNS.com Guru (more than 2 years)
• Level: DynDNS.com Founder (since the beginning!)

Why are the DynDNS.com accounts and DynDNS.com Community accounts not linked together?

We wanted to provide users as many options as possible for how they use their accounts. If you want to use your DynDNS.com username and password to access the forum, you can; simply choose the DynDNS.com OpenID icon when you sign up for the community. If you want them to be different, use an external OpenID provider (such as Google or Yahoo).

Be nice.

Treat others with the same respect you'd want them to treat you. We're all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor.

Be honest.

Above all, be honest. If you see misinformation, vote it down. Insert comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Even better — edit and improve the information! Provide stronger, faster, superior answers of your own!

Do I have to log in or create an account?

Nope. You can answer and ask questions to your heart's content as an anonymous user, much like Wikipedia. However, there are some things you won't be able to do on the site without registering. But it's easy to register if you want to. All you need is an OpenID account.

What is reputation?

Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of DynDNS.com Community — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.

Remember, DynDNS.com Community is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the DynDNS.com Community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more. (Note that votes for any posts marked "community wiki" do not generate reputation.)

Amass enough reputation points and the DynDNS.com Community will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. The staff at Dyn Inc. doesn't run the DynDNS.com Community. Our users and DynDNS.com Community members do.

What if I don't get a good answer?

In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.

If, after two days, you still don't have an answer you like, you can offer a bounty. Slice off a bit of your own hard-earned reputation -- anywhere from 50 to 500 -- and attach it to the question as a bounty. We'll even throw in 50 reputation to sweeten the deal. The bountied question will appear with a special icon in all question lists, and it will also be visible on the home page Featured tab.

Once initiated, the bounty period lasts seven days. If you mark an accepted answer, your bounty is awarded to the answerer (do note that accepted bounty answers are permanent and cannot be changed). If you do not accept an answer in seven days, the top voted answer will automatically become the accepted answer, and half your bounty will be awarded to that answer. You will always give up the amount of reputation specified in the bounty, so if you start a bounty, be sure to follow up and accept the best answer!

Of course, bounty awards, like all accepted answers, are immune to the daily reputation cap and community wiki mode.

Other people can edit my stuff?!

Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.