Mikrotik Cloud – a Dynamic DNS name and NTP service

When you setup a router in a site that does not have a static public IP address, you would usually have to rely on 3rd party Dynamic DNS services to provide you access to the device/site without knowing the current IP address.  This involved running scripts on the router to constantly update the DNS records.
Starting with RouterOS 6.14, Mikrotik have added a new feature called Cloud.¬†When enabled, it will generate a DNS name based on your router’s serial number. It also provides an NTP service. This will avoid having to run scripts to update the ip address if you use ntp servers like¬†ntp.pool.org and will not require any script to update the ip address at the 3rd party dynamic DNS name providers. Agreed, the generated DNS name is not a friendly one since it is based on the serial no but it should not be something you need to remember regularly since you can save the details in winbox.
To enable the Cloud service through command line:

/ip cloud set enabled=yes

To enable the NTP service (Update Time):

/ip cloud set update-time=yes

To view the settings and note the DNS Name:

/ip cloud print

The output will be similar to the below:

enabled: yes
update-time: yes
public-address: 0.0.0.0
dns-name: serialnumber.sn.mynetname.net
status: updated

Please note: Since v6.27 /ip cloud set enabled has changed to
/ip cloud set ddns-enabled
You can also enable it through Winbox or Webbox by clicking on the IP menu and click on Cloud.

Then tick the box marked Enabled and Update Time, if you require time sync. As soon as you click Apply, your DNS Name will be generated and it will show the current Public IP address

I personally like these new features and will definitely make use of them.
This seems to be a very popular post with daily hits. Don’t be shy! Let me know if you find it useful or if something needs to be changed!
UPDATE: I have written a blog post for using the Mikrotik Cloud IP DDNS when you have multiple ISPs. You can find it here.

Source = http://www.phy2vir.com/mikrotik-cloud-a-dynamic-dns-name-and-ntp-service/