Item — HN Reader

What hostility or ridiculousness did you see?

I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.

2 comments

They were one of those services that would repeatedly make the free service worse, in an attempt to get you to upgrade.

At first they changed it so you need to touch your account once every 30 days to keep it active. Using the automated updater counted as touching it.

Then they changed it where the automated updater didn't count anymore, so now you needed to log in manually every 30 days.

Once I didn't get their email, and they purged my whole account. I had to recreate it as a new account, and by now they had severely restricted the list of domains that were available for the free service, so I couldn't get the old domain back.

I realize it was a free account, and what not to do with gifted horses, but sending you an email every 30 days and purging your account if you don't click on it within a very short window is a little too annoying for me.

In a way this step now is more honest. If you don't want the free users, don't offer the free service.

> Once I didn't get their email, and they purged my whole account. I had to recreate it as a new account, and by now they had severely restricted the list of domains that were available for the free service, so I couldn't get the old domain back.

This exact same thing happened to me a few years back - didn't even notice the email, so I lost a name I'd had for years. I get that it wasn't really 'mine' per se; I might have paid for it anyway, since their service at the time was hardly expensive, but cancelling my stuff abruptly seemed... well, not exactly dishonest, I suppose. Let's go with 'distasteful.' I moved over to afraid.org's free dns service, and never looked back. It's sad it took Dyn so long to come out and admit they weren't interested in free users. I hope their new service works out for them, and that their free users are happier in their new homes.

Agreed. I guess they were trying to boot people out gradually, without causing a fuss. But that means many of their free customers lost their domains as a surprise, instead of moving to another service intentionally.

I used to be on EasyDNS and they got acquired by DynDNS many years back. They really have been trying to kick off the free users for a long time. Anyone who's hung on til now is a survivor.

They dropped from 5 free hostnames to 2, in 2010. And they have been enforcing this "log into your account monthly" since at least that time. Not 1 year, but at least 4 years or more. That's how I lost my free hostname - because I missed a month. Thanks Dyn!

They also removed a bunch of domains from their free tier a few years ago. This may help them drive some revenue in the short term, but long term I it is going to make customer acquisition a lot harder. I just switched over to no-ip.com...

What exactly do you expect from a free service? Seems like they're doing more than enough to accommodate you, a user who makes them nothing while costing them something.

Fair enough.

What I expect is that a company should either offer a free service and serve those customers well, or not offer it at all.

Offering a free service, but then being hostile to those people each and every month, is the worst of the options they could take. My 2 cents.

Lots of other companies, including my domain registrar, offer this service for free too.

Same issue here but I have set a reminder for every 2 weeks and luckily haven't missed.

I have my parents' old router set to use this - and really have no good way out.

I guess I give 'em money. Oh well.

everydns, not easydns.

You're right.