Your IP address: Fixed or Floating?

[oshunluvr]

Just a casual survey from an interesting discussion in another thread.

Comments about the WHY of your choices might be interesting to discuss.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Just a casual survey from an interesting discussion in another thread.

Comments about the WHY of your choices might be interesting to discuss.

Floating. And that's fine for my purposes.

[GreyGeek]

I use a fixed address because I run a Minecraft or a Castle Story server on this laptop. I set my wifi to give my laptop a permanent local IP (192.168.1.111) via its MAC. I also set port forwarding in my wifi router so that ports 25565 and 3000 are associated with my local IP address. I can put a wild card in those wifi router settings but it doesn't work as well as a fixed local IP address. Since my cable side IP address is constant my grandkids can set up their clients to that address and the appropriate ports.

[dtr]

Floating. It works for me and I don't really need fixed on this laptop.

[MoonRise]

Floating but when I did have a Minecraft server I used a DNS service that did quite well with that.

[Snowhog]

Floating (Dynamic). I don't need a Static (Fixed) IP, and I definitely don't want to pay the higher cost for one.

[MoonRise]

........ and I definitely don't want to pay the higher cost for one.

+1

[Feathers McGraw]

My WAN IP address is fixed, because I host a mail & web server at home.

Cost me a one-off £5 admin fee. LOVE PlusNet, my ISP. They also changed my PTR record for free because I asked nicely.

How much does a static IP address cost on the other side of the pond?

[bendy]

I have a rarely changing dynamic ip address. I wish it changed more often. I am offended by being tracked around the internet, so I use cookie monster, ghostery, https everywhere, and now even randomise my user agent string to try to defeat tracking. Unfortunately my rarely changing ip address is a big giveaway.

[GreyGeek]

... How much does a static IP address cost on the other side of the pond?

It depends a lot on your location and if there are more than one ISP supplying an internet connection. In Omaha, NE Comcast offers a single static IP address for $15.
http://business.comcast.com/internet...rnet/static-ip
Fifty miles away, here in Lincoln, Verizon offers a static ISP for $120 if one buy a business plan with 2 yr contract :
http://www.verizon.com/smallbusiness...rnet/packages/
Windstream, which features DSL connections, also limits static connections to business plans:
http://www.windstreambusiness.com/pr...class-internet
and addss $15/mo to a plan's charge. Who but the desperate or an idiot would pay $55 for a 3Mb connection that includes a static IP address?
I pay $70/month for a 20Mb Time Warner Internet only connection.
http://business.timewarnercable.com/...es/bf/bi8.html
If I wanted a static IP address I'd have to switch to an annual (or 2 or 3) year contract, beginning at $80/mo for a 10Mb connection, but $110/mo for that connection IF I want it to have a static IP address.

When the WWW first started, years ago, there were more than 55 ISPs in the US offering Internet connections. Competition was keen and prices were affordable. The bigger fish swallowed the smaller ones (fueled by de-regulation) and now there are about 5 major ISPs offering connections. Mostly on Copper wire and, as you can see, with onerous terms.

When I was using Windstream and running my Minecraft server for my grandsons I usually had tell them the new IP address when we connected with Mumble, which we used to talk back and forth while playing the game. With Time Warner, even though I did not purchase a static IP address when I switched to them eight months ago, my IP address has not changed. (It changed almost daily with Windstream). That is probably because I have not rebooted TW's modem in all that time, nor have I experienced a power failure which would cause it to reboot.

Another problem with ISP connections is the conversion to IPv6. While researching the price of static IP addresses "on this side of the pond" I noticed that several were bragging about their IPv6 capability, which they offered "for additional fees" and which required that one purchase "approved" modems.
Time Warner claims that they have rolled out support for over 90% of their residential network and that
http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/su...our-modem.html

Many residential subscribers who have a TWC-provided cable modem automatically will have IPv6 enabled when it is available in their service area. However, to use IPv6 in your home, any equipment that is directly connected to the modem (e.g., a router) must also support IPv6. A reboot of your equipment may be required.

Strange though. Even though I've set up my network connection to prefer IPv6 and choose it when available, most sites are still IPv4.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Many residential subscribers who have a TWC-provided cable modem automatically will have IPv6 enabled when it is available in their service area. However, to use IPv6 in your home, any equipment that is directly connected to the modem (e.g., a router) must also support IPv6. A reboot of your equipment may be required.

Thought I'd throw this out there: When Time Warner was involved recently with my on-again, off-again Internet connection, the rep I spoke to initially on the phone told me to reboot my computer. So I asked, "WHICH one of my six computers do you want me to reboot? And since they're all Linux, WHY?" Pregnant pause. And two days later when TW guy was here in person, rinse and repeat.

[Feathers McGraw]

GreyGeek, thanks for your detailed response!

I wonder what the reason for the cost difference is, my internet connection (including "line rental") is £30/month, which is about $52.

We have the same problem with the many small ISPs being swallowed by a few larger ones. The market here is dominated by British Telecom (BT) and VirginMedia. BT has its roots in the old public owned network, and therefore basicallly owns the "last mile" of copper cable to most homes. If you want to use another ISP, you still have to pay "line rental" to BT, who maintain that last mile.

Recently VM have come onto the scene and started laying their own Fibre To The Home (FTTH), which has stimulated the market big time, and has the added benefit of not using BT's infrastructure. BT is providing high speed broadbant with Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) ... so now you can get high speed broadband from VM (FTTH) or from BT (FTTC).

My ISP PlusNet is a subsidiary of BT, but they operate independently. They don't block as much stuff as BT, they have a better technical support team and more helpful website, and they seem to enjoy considerable autonomy.

I guess the BT/VirginMedia thing shows the benefits of competition rather nicely.

[NickStone]

My ISP PlusNet is a subsidiary of BT, but they operate independently. They don't block as much stuff as BT, they have a better technical support team and more helpful website, and they seem to enjoy considerable autonomy.

I guess the BT/VirginMedia thing shows the benefits of competition rather nicely.

I am currently with TalkTalk (which in my opinion are one of the worst ISP's in the UK) and there is not a day that goes by whereby connection will drop all of a sudden and download is almost non existent, the average download speed for me is 2Mb but have witnessed it dropping to just over 1Mb. To for me the most annoying aspect is the constant line drops (disconnections) where it feels like I am constantly resetting the router to get a connection.

As my contract is almost up I will be moving to another ISP and I would like to ask you Feathers what Plusnet is like? What is the connection like with Plusnet? What is their average download speed?

[Feathers McGraw]

I will be moving to another ISP and I would like to ask you Feathers what Plusnet is like? What is the connection like with Plusnet? What is their average download speed?

Because it's FTTC your connection speed depends on the length and quality of copper cable between your house and the green junction box. Mine is right outside the flat, so I get about 55Mb up and 15Mb down as measured by speedtest.net, although it varies (sometimes much better, sometimes a bit worse). I get better speeds as measured by PlusNet directly.

My family have BT Infinity, which is the same thing but administered by BT instead of PlusNet. They get similar speeds, perhaps even a little better, probably because the fibre was new to the area and they were one of the only customers using it.

So in terms of speed, it's fast enough that the bottleneck will probably be somewhere else, like the wireless connection between your computer and your router.

One more thing you should know about PlusNet is they do traffic management, so if you torrent loads in peak times they'll restrict your bandwidth so it doesn't affect other people. I didn't like the idea of this but I don't think it has affected me - torrents download at about 5-6Mb/s.

Hope that helps!

[NickStone]

Because it's FTTC your connection speed depends on the length and quality of copper cable between your house and the green junction box.

I knew that already. Do you also teach your granny how to suck eggs?

One more thing you should know about PlusNet is they do traffic management, so if you torrent loads in peak times they'll restrict your bandwidth so it doesn't affect other people. I didn't like the idea of this but I don't think it has affected me - torrents download at about 5-6Mb/s.

Hope that helps!

Well it's nice to know about their data management policy, I won't be signing up with them then. I'm looking for truly unlimited downloads with a reliable connection. Oh well I'll just have to keep looking. I wish I could sign up to Virgin Media and get their fibre optic broadband but my landlord won't let me have Virgin Media install their line/equipment in the property.