Dynamic IP or Static IP

[LaoziSailor]

I put the question in the "Keep this going..." thread -- 354592
...the reply by trainman (http://carecure.org/forum/member.php?u=4114) was "static".
Anyone care to discuss the pro's and con's?

If you want a fixed IP, you can set up your own website on your computer with a domain name that is yours as well.
With a dynamic IP that is still possible but with services such as dyndns.net, etc.

But there's more to it...

The forum is open.

Cheers!

[teyrn]

In answer to your question, it doesn't matter if you have a dynamic or static IP address. Your ISP uses dynamicaly assigned IP addresses mainly because it is the simplest way to make sure everyone who uses the service can get online and no one address accidently gets assigned to two diffrent people. Also to help prevent people from hosting web sites or ftp sites from their home computer. They will tell you it is more secure since the IP address of your computer or home never stays the same. This is bogus since worms and virii don't target indaviduals. Hackers scan ranges of IP addresses looking for the most promising target, dynamic or static if you fit the criteria then you will be a target. There is no real advantage or disadvantage to having a static or dynamic IP other then if you wish to host a web site or ftp site from home. Then if you really wanted to do such a thing there are programs such as what dyndns offers. Hosting a web site or ftp site from home isn't an ideal thing to do any way since it advertises your home computer to the whole world and invites bad things to happen to you that normaly wouldn't happen if you left your web hosting or ftp hosting up to a datacenter that provides such services. Your question is moot.

[L'Hospital]

One good thing about dynamic ip selection is that it prevents reincursion. Once a hacker gets into your computer, he will usually try to setup some kind of backdoor so he can get in again, but if your IP is changing every few hours it makes it really difficult to track you down. Unfortunatly there are ways to track a changing ip such as getting the victim to connect to an IRC server, or having the computer send out an email everytime its position changes. The one good thing about having a static ip is, you don't have to keep updating your registered domain. This isn't the same thing as dyndns because the software is hosted on a server rack in a data center instead of on your home computer and they expect you to be at a certain ip so you can recieve mail and stuff. Other than that, and a few other things like sites that are ip restricted, I suppose it doesn't really matter to the average internet user.