No-IP

Vitalwerks LLC is the parent company of No-IP which is a dynamic DNS provider for paid and free services. No-IP offers DNS services, email, network monitoring and SSL certificates. Email services include POP3 email, outbound SMTP email, backup mail services and mail reflection and filtering.
History.
No-IP was launched in October 2000 offering free dynamic DNS and URL redirection. Users were able to create a sub-domain under a few domains owned by No-IP. In May 2000, Vitalwerks Internet Solutions, LLC was formed as the parent company of No-IP. In January 2001 No-IP began offering paid managed DNS services which allowed users to set up dynamic DNS using their own domain name. Later that year they began offering email services to complement their DNS product. With growing popularity, No-IP has been featured in magazines such as PC magazine and Mac User. They began reselling domain names in 2002 and in 2006 became an ICANN accredited registrar.
Technology and services.
No-IP's core product is dynamic DNS services ("DDNS"). The basic dynamic DNS services using a domain owned by No-IP are free to use as long as the account remains active. An upgraded service to use your own domain name will cost about $25 for the year. Dynamic IP addresses are common on residential cable or DSL broadband accounts. The free service allows users to set up between one and three hostnames on a domain name provided by No-IP. The host name will then resolve to the current IP address of that user's computer. A software client is also provided by No-IP for Windows, OS X, and Linux that can be run on the computer that has the dynamic address. No-IP also provides other DNS, e-mail, and Network Monitoring services.
Dynamic DNS API.
A dynamic DNS host name is linked up to the user's dynamic IP address. Whenever the IP changes, a dynamic DNS client will send an update to No-IP with the current IP address and then No-IP propagates the DNS change to the Internet within seconds.
To facilitate IP address updates, No-IP has an open protocol that allows software developers and hardware manufacturers to communicate via HTTP to notify them of an IP address change.
Many router manufacturers provide built in support for No-IP's dynamic DNS protocol, for example Asus, D-Link, Dovado, Edimax, SonicWall, SMC, and TP-Link.
Most third-party firmware distributions such as OpenWrt and DD-WRT also include No-IP in their selection of DDNS providers for routers that have support from the manufacturer.
Microsoft legal action and controversy.
On 19 June 2014, Microsoft launched a legal action against No-IP, requesting that Microsoft be given control of 22 of No-IP's domain names. This was granted on 26 June 2014, and Microsoft began redirecting domain traffic to their sinkhole. According to No-IP this affected malicious and non malicious users alike, despite Microsoft's statement of intent to the contrary. Legitimate users of the service (including paid premium plans) are also diverted to the Microsoft sinkhole. Backlash to the confiscation however led to Microsoft returning the domains to No-IP.