Benefits of paying for a static IP?

[sillysimms]

Could someone please tell me what is the benefit of paying for a static IP? I'm with Rogers and we do have a static IP. I'm looking at possibly switching to TekSavvy and they charge $4/month for a static IP.

I really don't know anything about this. Is it necessary? Are there any problems if you don't have a static IP?

[akademiks]

I've found it MUCH safer to have a dynamic IP as opposed to a static IP.

I was with Rogers a few years back and was getting hacked and ddos'd (denial of service attacks) regularly and Rogers wouldn't do ANYTHING about it. I couldn't change my IP.
I may not be completely correct with this, but I think that when you've got a dynamic IP, you've left a much smaller footprint on the internet, because many IP addresses are reused by many users, so it's hard to tell which IP belongs to whom.
You can access web sites that your IP has been banned for with a reset of your system or modem as well (eg. Torrents)
I don't really know why a static IP would be useful.

[Dave98]

Teksavvy provides a basic, capped speed usenet service if you subscribe to a static IP with them

other than that, if you don't need a reason to have an easy to rememeber IP, then you don't need it

[woof]

I believe a static IP is necessary if you're going to be running a server that you or other people are going to be connecting to.

[Gee]

Rogers charges for a static IP. It only appears that you have a static IP because when you renew your IP, it just re-assigns the same IP back to you. But it does change every few months.

If you don't know what it is, you don't need it.

In simple terms. Think of it as a permenant address. It just allows people to find you easily because you are always at the same spot. A dynamic IP is the opposite, your IP changes everytime you log into the internet (DSL) and your address will change more frequently.

It is really bad in the US, my brother is on SBC and has a 2Wire Modem, they change his IP every few minutes to just to make sure he is not running servers or P2P.

The problem with that, your connection drops every time your IP changes. It is no big deal if you are surfing or reading email. But when you are streaming video etc. It is a big problem.

[willy]

Agree with Gee. Regular Rogers' customers have 'relatively-static' dynamic IP addresses. I have been with Rogers for more than 10 years and I got ~ 6-7 IP changes over the same period.

Yes, if you are running web/FTP server(s), static IP will make your life a lot easier. However, you can still do the same if you have dynamic IP with the help of the dynamic DNS service (ie. no-ip.com).

[fastlayne]

You may want to check with a Teksavvy user to see if they DNS a customer's IP address - even if dynamic. (They can use a site like remote.12dt.com to do a "reverse" lookup of an IP address.)

In fact Rogers creates a DNS entry for each customer in the form of "CPExxxxxx-CMxxxx.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com".

Even though my dynamic IP address may change, I can always resolve the IP address by using my Rogers' DNS name.

If this is the case with Teksavvy then a dynamic address is as good as a static address. (Unless of course it changes every few minutes, then hosting is pretty much useless.)

[jerryhung]

I use WRT54GL with DD-WRT, and with www.dyndns.org

so you can always access me by XXX.dyndns.org, no IP required

[shrugs*]

I believe a static IP is necessary if you're going to be running a server that you or other people are going to be connecting to.

DNS is usually an easier option.

The majority of uses for a static IP are against the ToS of most ISPs (not sure about this specific one).

[deep]

A buddy of mine has a Cogeco static IP, and it's completely worthless to him. It has changed 3 times in the last year due to technical difficulties - at one point he was actually considering using dynDNS for his "static" IP.

I've been running the same servers for 7 years behind my dynDNS "xxx.is-a-geek.com" address, and I've never had a problem. Works with my servers, my slingbox, my remote connections, etc etc etc...

I definitely wouldn't pay for a static IP from any of the residential ISPs.

[AcidBomber]

I prefer dynamic IP.
Especially when i download off of RapidShare/MegaUpload and the like. Since i dont want to pay, i just reset my modem, get a new IP, and download again and again.

[Kaitlyn]

as jerryhung pointed out, you can use a service like dyndns.org with your router to get a hostname to point to your changing IP address.

As others have also said, if you don't really know if you need a static ip or not, then you almost certainly do NOT need one.

[Gee]

If you want to change your IP on Rogers, just plug your modem into another computer and power it up. They assign IPs based on the MAC address of the Network card.

Actually, I am not sure what would happen if you plug it back into your router after the IP change. Would it revert back to the original IP?

[sillysimms]

Thanks everyone. Yes, we have had 2 or 3 IP changes over the year with Rogers. I just considered it static as it is usually the same.

A dynamic IP is the opposite, your IP changes everytime you log into the internet (DSL) and your address will change more frequently.

It is really bad in the US, my brother is on SBC and has a 2Wire Modem, they change his IP every few minutes to just to make sure he is not running servers or P2P.

The problem with that, your connection drops every time your IP changes. It is no big deal if you are surfing or reading email. But when you are streaming video etc. It is a big problem.

Does anyone know if this is a problem with TekSavvy? Are you saying that if I'm downloading a torrent the IP address might be changed in the middle of the download and everything would be lost?

[Gee]

Canadians are a lot smarter. If the ISP knows you are accessing the network, they will not change your IP. In fact, Teksavvy does not change your IP at all unless your modem disconnects.