The key to DDNS is that the device has to log into the DDNS service and update the database when the device IP is changed.
Netgear's version of OpenVPN works with No-IP.com and Dyn.com. (I am using No-IP successfully.)
My guess is that the Orbi will not update any other DDNS services. Why? Perhaps it is because there is no "standard" protocol to update DDNS and the device has to be programmed differently for each provider. For example, smtp is totally standard, so the email setup on Orbi simply has to know the name and port number.
Someone else will probably have a better explanation. My suggestion is to sign up for a free account on either No-IP or Dyn.
Many providers offer commercial or free Dynamic DNS service for this scenario. The automatic reconfiguration is generally implemented in the user's router or computer, which runs software to update the DDNS service. The communication between the user's equipment and the provider is not standardized, although a few standard web-based methods of updating have emerged over time.
Do you actually use the No-IP service? If so, have you received a notification that you must confirm that you are using your hostname every 30 days? Don't want to be bothered? Upgrade, and save $5! woohoo! So happy, yay. Are you F*cking kidding me.
So, I'm would like Netgear to have their engineers add what ever custom code is required (yes, I know, not standard) to talk to the servers at https://www.duckdns.org/. It'll be a fun project for them I'm sure.
I'm sure many customers would be happy.
Anyway, I know this will not happen, and I've already decided I'm returning this Orbi system. The build in VPN was one of the features that I was really looking forward to, but this is just BS.
I used No-IP's "free" host name for testing. Once I decided to implement VPN on several Orbi systems, I paid them.
I think we agree that Netgear is not likely to add more DDNS providers. I have not done extensive research, so I have no idea that should they decide to add more providers, duckdns.org would be one they would pick.
I don't know what percentage of Orbi customers implement DDNS/VPN. My guess is very few.
It woud be fantastic if we were able to have the option to create our own provider in this case. There are several, and I use Cloudflare. It's very unfortunate we are limited. I still can't figure out how to have the VPN use another hostname versus the one configured in DynDNS.
It woud be fantastic if we were able to have the option to create our own provider in this case. There are several, and I use Cloudflare. It's very unfortunate we are limited. I still can't figure out how to have the VPN use another hostname versus the one configured in DynDNS.
