NIP.io
NIP.io is a public wildcard DNS service that resolves hostnames containing an IP address to that address. We trial it for disposable development, demo, and Kubernetes ingress environments.
Blurb
Dead simple wildcard DNS for any IP Address
Summary
When to use: A temporary environment needs human-readable hostnames without editing /etc/hosts or managing a DNS zone. It is particularly convenient for local clusters, short-lived demos, and ingress testing.
When to skip: Production, private environments with DNS rebinding protection, or any system that cannot depend on a public DNS service. Use a controlled domain and DNS zone for durable infrastructure.
Current status: nip.io is operational but is now hosted by sslip.io. Both services resolve embedded IPv4 addresses. sslip.io also supports IPv6 and custom domains.
TLS limitation: Individual public hostnames can use ACME HTTP-01 certificates. The service does not support wildcard certificates, and shared-domain certificate rate limits can affect users.
Details
| Hostname | Result |
|---|---|
10.0.0.1.nip.io | Resolves to 10.0.0.1 |
app.10.8.0.1.nip.io | Resolves to 10.8.0.1 |
app-192-168-1-10.nip.io | Resolves to 192.168.1.10 |
| Constraint | Impact |
|---|---|
| Public dependency | Resolution depends on third-party nameservers and Internet access |
| DNS rebinding protection | Some routers and resolvers block answers for private addresses |
| Shared certificate domain | ACME issuance may encounter shared rate limits |
| No wildcard certificates | Issue certificates for individual externally reachable hostnames |
References