As for DDNS it's a solution to a problem that is best avoided in the first place.

Yes, something I meant to mention while I was at it! Although you can have a DDNS service working for remote access to a DVR it's best to have a fixed IP address where possible. Sometimes though, this isn't possible, or not immediately anyway (mid-contract with ISP for one).

The reason I said steer clear of VPN's is because most software\firmware will only allow IP addresses to be used as endpoints for tunnels so DDNS services are out, or at best, extremely hard work.

I strongly agree with amatureandy, get a static IP address from day one.

DDNS services are ok but they are no where near fool proof and from time to time your newly assigned Dynamic IP address may not get updated or correctly forwarded so that you can