Duck DNS has stopped working

Hi Guys

Hopefully someone can help…

I’ve been using Duck DNS for about 2 years now without any issues but over the last week I cannot access Home Assistant remotely on the external IP, I’ve confirmed the IP address on Duck DNS is the same as my public IP address both on Duck DNS and if I use “What’s My IP” in a browser, and it resolves correctly on my PC and if I ping the DNS name I get replies.

Nothing has changed on my router / firewall for probably 8 months so I’m pretty certain that’s not the issue.

I have not touched the Letsencrypt configuration at all since it was initially setup.

Letsencrypt version is 4.11.0
DuckDNS version is 1.13.0

System info below

Letsencrypt log:

[s6-init] making user provided files available at /var/run/s6/etc...exited 0.
[s6-init] ensuring user provided files have correct perms...exited 0.
[fix-attrs.d] applying ownership & permissions fixes...
[fix-attrs.d] done.
[cont-init.d] executing container initialization scripts...
[cont-init.d] file-structure.sh: executing... 
[cont-init.d] file-structure.sh: exited 0.
[cont-init.d] done.
[services.d] starting services
[services.d] done.
[11:27:20] INFO: Selected http verification
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Plugins selected: Authenticator standalone, Installer None
Cert is due for renewal, auto-renewing...
Renewing an existing certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for XXXX.duckdns.org
Waiting for verification...
Challenge failed for domain XXXXX.duckdns.org
http-01 challenge for XXXXX.duckdns.org
Cleaning up challenges
Some challenges have failed.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - The following errors were reported by the server:
   Domain: XXXXXX.duckdns.org
   Type:   connection
   Detail: Fetching
   http://XXXXX.duckdns.org/.well-known/acme-challenge/zReI1q-osinzEH2LJXiF4qQSu56h6sqIQ8W9thodixc:
   Timeout during connect (likely firewall problem)
   To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was
   entered correctly and the DNS A/AAAA record(s) for that domain
   contain(s) the right IP address. Additionally, please check that
   your computer has a publicly routable IP address and that no
   firewalls are preventing the server from communicating with the
   client. If you're using the webroot plugin, you should also verify
   that you are serving files from the webroot path you provided.
[cont-finish.d] executing container finish scripts...
[cont-finish.d] done.
[s6-finish] waiting for services.
[s6-finish] sending all processes the TERM signal.
[s6-finish] sending all processes the KILL signal and exiting.

Letsencrypt config File:

email: [email protected]
domains:
  - XXXXX.duckdns.org
certfile: fullchain.pem
keyfile: privkey.pem
challenge: http
dns: {}

DuckDNS config File:

lets_encrypt:
  accept_terms: true
  certfile: fullchain.pem
  keyfile: privkey.pem
token: mytoken
domains:
  - XXXXX.duckdns.org
aliases: []
seconds: 300


configuration.yaml File:

http:
#     base_url: XXXXX.duckdns.org:8123
     ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem
     ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem 

There were lots of issues recently with DuckDNS, may be related to this.

You should not be using the LetsEncrypt addon.

The DuckDNS addon includes it when you set the config option:

lets_encrypt:
  accept_terms: true

Hi @tom_I thanks for the reply but I don’t really understand what you mean, I have below in my DuckDNS config file. Has something changed on Home Assistant recently with Letsencrypt and DuckDNS?

Thanks.

lets_encrypt:
  accept_terms: true

Do you have the LetsEncrypt addon installed (it sounds like you do from your post)?

If so, remove it.

LetsEncrypt is already included in the DuckDNS addon.

Having both the LetsEncrypt addon and DuckDNS addon installed will cause issues.

Ah I didn’t know that, yes I had both installed (always have though) I have uninstalled LetsEncrypt now and restarted Home Assistant but still cannot connect :frowning_face:

There are no errors in the DuckDNS log file and the IP address its detecting is correct?

Restart the DuckDNS addon.

Restarting Home Assistant will not do this as addons are in their own containers.

I first tried restarting DuckDNS but it still didn’t connect so tried restarting Home Assistant.

I still cant connect after both restarts.

What is in your duckDNS addon log?

[s6-init] making user provided files available at /var/run/s6/etc...exited 0.
[s6-init] ensuring user provided files have correct perms...exited 0.
[fix-attrs.d] applying ownership & permissions fixes...
[fix-attrs.d] done.
[cont-init.d] executing container initialization scripts...
[cont-init.d] done.
[services.d] starting services
[services.d] done.
# INFO: Using main config file /data/workdir/config
+ Account already registered!
[12:21:13] INFO: OK
41.10.x.x
NOCHANGE
[12:21:13] INFO: Renew certificate for domains: xxxxx.duckdns.org and aliases: 
# INFO: Using main config file /data/workdir/config
Processing xxxxx.duckdns.org
 + Checking domain name(s) of existing cert... unchanged.
 + Checking expire date of existing cert...
 + Valid till Nov  1 17:56:33 2021 GMT (Longer than 30 days). Skipping renew!
[12:26:17] INFO: OK
41.10.x.x
NOCHANGE
[12:31:18] INFO: OK
41.10.x.x
NOCHANGE

What error do you get in your web browser when trying to access the DuckDNS address from a location external to your network?

Unable to connect error…

Although something I’ve noticed now is that I actually can’t ping the hostname if I’m on an internet connection not routing via my home router so I’m wondering if it is not perhaps something like a policy change with my ISP where they now block incoming connections, its the only other thing I can think of.

image

Clear your browser cache and try again. What error now?

I don’t think its that, its doing the same from the app and on other devices I’ve tried.

Don’t think it’s what?

All I want is the error message the browser reports.

Sorry, I meant I didn’t think it was the browser cache issue. I’ve cleared it and the issue persists.

But something else I’ve tried now is connecting via my wife’s mobile phone (as a hotspot) which is a different ISP to what I use for my mobile and who are also our fiber provider and it then connects through my DuckDNS hostname so I’m pretty convinced at this point that my ISP may no longer be allowing either inbound NAT or incoming connections, its the only logical thing I can think of.

EDIT, actually it cannot be that either because via her ISP the connection into our network would still go via our fiber provider.

I’m really stumped right now.

Yet you still have not posted what I asked for.

I’m out.

@tom_I what I meant with the issue persists is that after clearing the browser cache I am still getting the same error: “Unable to connect to Home Assistant”

My apologies I should have been clearer with my reply.

image

If you really have cleared your browser cache then the DuckDNS address is resolvable because that image is coming from the home assistant web server.

My bad I ticked the wrong box when clearing the cache, it is working now :flushed:

Thanks for your help and patience @tom_l