[X4U] Possibly OT: Static IP, what have you done for me lately?

[David Ledger]

>From: Tim Collier <timjcollier at mac.com>
>I'm pretty certain that this is off-topic but other might learn from
>your responses (especially me).  I'll start off by telling you why we
>have a static IP now.  We've had Comcast as our ISP for several years
>now and they go down occasionally.  Over the past week, they were
>down more than up and I was getting frustrated.  My wife and I talked
>it over and decided that we'd also sign up for BellSouth DSL.  The
>price was good and was not going to be a real burden just so if one
>goes down we still have the other.  OK, that said, part of
>BellSouth's package includes a Static IP address, it sounded like a
>good idea and I opted for it (it was free with my plan).
>Now, we get to my question.  What can I actually do with it?  Can I
>run a website in my home?  Can I use some of those obscure protocols
>to connect to the house from outside?  Can any of you suggest other
>ways I might use this?
>I'm at the point where I'm saying "cool, I have a static IP", but
>what can I do with it?

You can point one or more domain names at it to help you run services 
available from outside more easily.

One advantage that is rarely mentioned is that it never times out. 
One of the disadvantages of a variable IP is that some ISPs break 
your service while they allocate a new one, and that will break large 
downloads. A few years back someone was complaining that their IP was 
changed so often that they couldn't download a combo updater. Doubt 
that there are any that bad now.

David


-- 
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
Chair of HPUX SysAdmin SIG of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
david.ledger at ivdcs.co.uk
www.ivdcs.co.uk