RT-BE88U Custom DDNS without Merlin for Cloudflare

[vanarebane]

Hello,

Today I upgraded from 5 year running AX88U to BE88U. I have to say it's a perfect upgrade for me as I can ditch one power hungry SFP+ hub and use BE88U SFP+ port instead, so I'm very happy with this upgrade!

I was rocking Merling firmware for some time now and the only thing I'm missing in BE88U is custom DDNS or option to setup Cloudflare.
In the original firmware, there is no option for custom DDNS and I'd like to continue keep using my domain and Cloudflare API. I need this for HomeAssistant.

Also Merlin has not listed BE88U in the supported devices in the near future. It takes some time to build popularity for BE88U and Merlin to acquire the BE88U devices.

So here is my question, can I somehow enable custom DDNS outside the GUI in the original firmware?
I have access to the SSH and feel comfortable fiddling around in Linux but I'm hoping there is a way to manually setup router to use custom DDNS.

 

[chris5a]

I have the AX88U and have been looking at the BE88U as the successor upgrade unit since it has all the advantages of the AX88U with the 8 ports and good form factor with the addition of the additional 10Gbpe ports.

I came here looking for Merlin support before I upgrade and see I may have to wait until it gets adopted.

As for your issue I am connected to DNS-O-Matic as it allows one connection to multiple DNS names and systems all in one. I have it pointed at my Cloudflare server in addition to some other DDNS services and it works well to keep the routers WAN address updated with various DNS services. Maybe that will allow you to keep your HA and other CF services running normally through your new router.

 

[vanarebane]

I have the AX88U and have been looking at the BE88U as the successor upgrade unit since it has all the advantages of the AX88U with the 8 ports and good form factor with the addition of the additional 10Gbpe ports.

I came here looking for Merlin support before I upgrade and see I may have to wait until it gets adopted.

As for your issue I am connected to DNS-O-Matic as it allows one connection to multiple DNS names and systems all in one. I have it pointed at my Cloudflare server in addition to some other DDNS services and it works well to keep the routers WAN address updated with various DNS services. Maybe that will allow you to keep your HA and other CF services running normally through your new router.

Thanks. Seems like DNS-O-Matic is acquired by OpenDNS and no longer allow to sign up new accounts.

So I did a little overview of the provided DDNS services for ASUS. But to me, seems like this list has not changed in 6 years and many are not working anymore and most are paid services.

Currently, if wishing to use personal domain privately and not pay for DDNS services seems like Zoneedit. Although to me the service does not seem trustworthy as they proudly advertise "under new management".... so in few months there are new rules?

I'll try to see if I can enable the custom DDNS script somehow without the GUI help...

 

[chris5a]

Thanks. Seems like DNS-O-Matic is acquired by OpenDNS and no longer allow to sign up new accounts.

I knew you needed to use OpenDNS to login but didn't know OpenDNS was acquired by Cisco.

Looks like a free account can still be created here so give that a try.

Home Free by OpenDNS

signup.opendns.com

 

[VladDBA]

This is my biggest gripe with this router. Until (hopefully) Merlin is available for it.
My current workaround is to use HA to detect the WAN IP and email me the new IP if it detects a change or if HA restarted, on my phone and/or laptop I then edit the ovpn config file with the latest IP and import it again.
It's not the most elegant solution, but it does the job in lack of DDNS.

Later Edit: After writing this reply I got curious about offloading the DDNS part to HA, and it turns out that it's doable.
I've just set up this integration and it's working like a charm. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/cloudflare/