Dynamic DNS on EdgeRouter X with Google Domains

July 04, 2018

Prefer to use Google Domains and wish to setup dynamic DNS?  Here's how to do just that!

First things first... Why?

Dynamic DNS is fantastic especially if your WAN IP is not static (i.e. your external IP given to you by your ISP may change based on DHCP lease time or other factors).  Dynamic DNS will automatically call home to your dynamic DNS provider and notify them of your new external IP.  This means that anytime you visit home.example.com, you'll always get directed to your home's external IP even if it has changed.  No need to manually update records every time you receive a new external address!

Instructions

Google Domains

  1. Login to your Google account and visit the domains portal at https://domains.google.com.
  2. Find the domain you wish to use and click on the DNS button.
  3. Under the Synthetic records section, click the dropdown and select Dynamic DNS.
  4. In the Subdomain field, enter what you wish this FQDN to be (ex. home.example.com or camp.example.com).
  5. Once done, click Add.
  6. You'll now want to view your credentials and note them.  We'll need them for the next steps.

Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X

  1. Login to your EdgeRouter and click on the Config Tree tab.
  2. Drill down to: Service > DNS > Dynamic > Interface > eth0 (or your WAN interface) > service.
  3. Add a new item called noip (it complains based on the name; noip was my previous dynamic DNS provider so I kept it as such).
  4. Set the following:
    • Hostname: house.example.com (what you added under Synthetic records)
    • Login: Username that Google provided you (not your Google account username, the username under the synthetic record)
    • Options: blank
    • Password: Password that Google provided you
    • Protocol: googledomains
    • Server: domains.google.com
  5. Once done, click Preview and then Apply.
  6. If you go back to the Google Domains dashboard, under your synthetic record, you should now see your actual WAN IP. It worked!

©2024 Tyler Wright