Autorefresh external ip on fixed intervals.

[DrnTT 0]

Simply because when the external ip changes (due to disconnects/DOS/whatever) the client is stuck until the get ip button is pressed. An option to automatically acquire the external address at fixed intervals (30m/1h/6h/etc) would help.

[Satan 1]

Has been requested before, AFAIK it is on the to-do list.

[DrnTT 0]

Has been requested before, AFAIK it is on the to-do list.

Sorry for the double request but I didn't see it in the requests. Thanks for the reply:)

[Big Muscle 1]

Some DNS service would help you without any special feature in Apex.

[DrnTT 0]

Some DNS service would help you without any special feature in Apex.

No Dynamic DNS services (which I already use) do not help at all. Because ApexDC needs raw ip address. Even if you type a DNS name in the box it automatically gets changed to an ip when it is resolved for the first time.

If you are referring to standard DNS then that is not possible with dynamic ip addresses and static is not an option for the majority of broadband users (or it's not cost effective). Because of that my entire network is mapped to my registered domain names via Dynamic DNS. This is a feature most users without static ips, would benefit from.

[Teobald 0]

Someone told me, i would be the only user having this problem.

[Satan 1]

If you set up Apex correctly it wont pre-fill your IP upon each restart, simply put the address in the Manual field.

[DrnTT 0]

If you set up Apex correctly it wont pre-fill your IP upon each restart, simply put the address in the Manual field.

We were not talking about ip. We were talking about entering a DNS name in the field. Which no matter what, gets translated to an ip the first time it gets resolved.

So the solution suggested of using Dynamic DNS services (eg dyndns.org or noip.com) so that you can put a DNS name in the box that always translates to your currently assigned dynamic ip does not work.

[Satan 1]

I realise that, and no it doesn't. I use a DNS and have down for a few years. Mine never converts to numeric.

[DrnTT 0]

I realise that, and no it doesn't. I use a DNS and have down for a few years. Mine never converts to numeric.

This is very weird as mine gets resolved...I need to test a bit more on this and I'll get back to you.

EDIT: After all possible combinations of suboptions, the DNS name gets resolved into ip no matter what I do. I'm wondering how it is that it works for you...

[Satan 1]

Well I'm not near my PC but ill screendump it tomo night when I get home to show you it works for me.

It always has. Your sure your entering it in the correct place and have 'auto-update IP on startup' NOT checked?

[DrnTT 0]

Well I'm not near my PC but ill screendump it tomo night when I get home to show you it works for me.

It always has. Your sure your entering it in the correct place and have 'auto-update IP on startup' NOT checked?

Yes, I've screenshotted it bellow.

Here I enter my Dynamic DNS

And here is checking settings after restarting the client

EDIT: Removed images for security reasons as they are not needed anymore.

[Satan 1]

Ok, 2 things:

Select 'Don't allow hub/UPnP to override'

Change from 'Firewall with UPnP' to 'Manual with Port Forwarding'

Then save settings and restart.

[DrnTT 0]

Ok, 2 things:

Select 'Don't allow hub/UPnP to override'

Change from 'Firewall with UPnP' to 'Manual with Port Forwarding'

Then save settings and restart.

The problem with these settings is that I actually use UPnP to automaticaly forward random ports instead of having specific ports manually port forwarded so the second option you are suggesting will not work in my environment (it's a matter of security). I will try the effects of the first option though as by it's description it shouldn't affect my specific setup.

EDIT: After testing it means the 'Don't allow hub/UPnP to override' does exactly that. And it works perfectly now. By its name I thought it meant to prevent UPnP from overriding previously assigned ports (actualy it may do that as well--if someone can confirm please?).

Anyhow, thanks for the help Satan:) (Now that sounded funny:p)

[Satan 1]

Ok, just one piece of advice before I leave this topic, I recommend (and it's just a recommendation, your PC, so do as you please) that you DO NOT use UPnP. UPnP is an extremely flawed protocol and for reasons too numerous for me to explain cannot be fixed. I would never use UPnP as it will allow near enough anyone with a 'little' knowhow to access your PC on pretty much any port they wish.

The decision of course is yours, but I would like you to read the UPnP wiki at least before making use of such a feature. As I have said (too much now in this post) it is VERY insecure, I would just like you to know exactly what you are using before you choose to use it.

PS to answer your question, it will over-ride UPnP and the hub from changing your ports. However, if you have the 3 port options zeroed this should not cause any anomalies.

[Old Indain 1]

Ok, just one piece of advice before I leave this topic, I recommend (and it's just a recommendation, your PC, so do as you please) that you DO NOT use UPnP. UPnP is an extremely flawed protocol and for reasons too numerous for me to explain cannot be fixed. I would never use UPnP as it will allow near enough anyone with a 'little' knowhow to access your PC on pretty much any port they wish.

The decision of course is yours, but I would like you to read the UPnP wiki at least before making use of such a feature. As I have said (too much now in this post) it is VERY insecure, I would just like you to know exactly what you are using before you choose to use it.

PS to answer your question, it will over-ride UPnP and the hub from changing your ports. However, if you have the 3 port options zeroed this should not cause any anomalies.

Damn Satan , thanks, I have been trying to figure out that little problem and what you had said about it, this little string made it perfectly clear....thanks

[DrnTT 0]

Ok, just one piece of advice before I leave this topic, I recommend (and it's just a recommendation, your PC, so do as you please) that you DO NOT use UPnP. UPnP is an extremely flawed protocol and for reasons too numerous for me to explain cannot be fixed. I would never use UPnP as it will allow near enough anyone with a 'little' knowhow to access your PC on pretty much any port they wish.

The decision of course is yours, but I would like you to read the UPnP wiki at least before making use of such a feature. As I have said (too much now in this post) it is VERY insecure, I would just like you to know exactly what you are using before you choose to use it.

I appreciate your warning but I am quite familiar with UPnP and it's implementation. It is very secure in an isolated environment such as the one I use it in. I order for someone to exploit UPnP, they need remote execution or physical access to the network. I'm a game engine developer and I know a fair bit about networking;)

PS to answer your question, it will over-ride UPnP and the hub from changing your ports. However, if you have the 3 port options zeroed this should not cause any anomalies.

Understood. The 3 ports are of course zero'd as the reason I'm doing it that way is having random ports.

Again, thanks for your time.

[Satan 1]

NP, so long as your aware of it, I just didn't want you to say I didn't tell you :crying:

[DrnTT 0]

This is weird. After a bit of testing, it seems that while ApexDC is reading the address from the dynamic DNS name, it still fails to change to the new ip in case of the router acquiring a new one (the dynamic DNS A record is updated of course). Connections still time out for some reason and the only way to make it resume is to restart it.

Does ApexDC use an internal DNS resolve cache? Or maybe it only resolves the DNS name once and uses the ip internally? These are the only two educated guesses I can make...

[Satan 1]

It takes a while for the resolve to be fully implemented, likewise DC will have the same problem. In my case, I have been known to wait up to 6 hours for such things to resolve correctly.

[DrnTT 0]

It takes a while for the resolve to be fully implemented, likewise DC will have the same problem. In my case, I have been known to wait up to 6 hours for such things to resolve correctly.

Do you mean the time it takes for the change of the ip to propagate to the DNS servers? If so, it was the first thing I checked and my DNS servers already reflected the new value so the client should have resolved that one.

Or maybe you mean it takes time for ApexDC (and every DC client as well) to do another resolve of the DNS name? (Hardcoded interval perhaps?)

In any case I did not imply this is an issue with ApexDC only as I did not try another client. In fact I assume the majority of clients would behave like that since they're all forked off the same codebase.

If the later is the case then my original suggestion would be twice handy :shifty:

EDIT: original feature request even:)

[Satan 1]

It seems to take the client itself some time to update. I could be wrong, that's just an ime.

[DrnTT 0]

It seems to take the client itself some time to update. I could be wrong, that's just an ime.

Roger that. I will try to time it next time it happens, though maybe it would be easier to just read the source and check the behaviour. That way I could probably tweak it to suit my needs. I wonder if it would be ok with the ApexDC devs to post a link with an ApexDC binary patched that way?

[Crise 26]

Roger that. I will try to time it next time it happens, though maybe it would be easier to just read the source and check the behaviour. That way I could probably tweak it to suit my needs. I wonder if it would be ok with the ApexDC devs to post a link with an ApexDC binary patched that way?

I don't mind, in this case (normally we do not handle anything mod related in these forums since they are apexdc only), though if you do that provide the source/patch as well (gpl).

[DrnTT 0]

I don't mind, in this case (normally we do not handle anything mod related in these forums since they are apexdc only), though if you do that provide the source/patch as well (gpl).

Thank you for the reply. I'll just patch it in a way that helps people with dynamic ip and/or dynamic dns out of timing out, with minimal modification. Of course I'll post the source including plain diffs under gpl (everything I code is GPL'd:)) and you're free to merge it if you like the implementation and think it could be helpful to the rest of the ApexDC userbase without causing any problems or side-effects. :shifty: