[PLUG] Static or Dynamic IP Address?

[Casey Bralla <MailList@NerdWorld.org>]

I'm going to make the plunge to a "business" class Internet account in which  
my ISP will graciously allow me to run any and all servers.  I have been 
illegally running DNS, mail, and web server on my comcast residential 
account, but comcast is getting more and more aggressive filtering ports, so 
I'm getting fed up with finding work-arounds.  (Some of the work-arounds cost 
money, and my accounts for those are running out next month.)

Due to the nature of a competitive free market, the cost of phone, TV, and 
Internet is coming down, so that the incremental cost of a business account 
is offset by the savings of bundling... if I go with a dynamic IP.   If I 
elect to take a single static IP, the total cost goes up, which makes it a 
tough sell to my wife who keeps seeing the FiOS and comcast ads on TV and 
dreams of big savings.

So far, FiOS is the better deal, but even though I am not a fan of comcast, at 
least they are "the devil I know" whereas FiOS is mostly unknown.

My residential comcast account theoretically has a dynamic IP, but it has been 
very stable, only changing once in 4 years.  (interestingly, if I plug a 
different NIC into the cable modem, the IP changes, but if I put the original 
NIC back in, it reverts to the original IP.  Must be some kind of algorithm 
to assign IPs that looks at the MAC address.)

The only difficulty I've had with the dynamic IP is that Reverse DNS lookups 
don't resolve back to me.  This has only hurt for outgoing eMail, where this 
reverse DNS is often needed as an anti-spam tool by the receiving mail 
server.   To overcome this, I've been relaying my outgoing mail through 
comcast's eMail server without any problems.


So my plan as of now is to buy FiOS business class with a dynamic IP.  But 
maybe somebody could help me with some particulars:

1.  How often does the IP actually change?  (Any period longer than a few 
months is fine for me)
2.  Will Verizon let me relay through their mail servers, or are their free 
services that will relay?  (I'll have a half-dozen domains that will be 
sending low volumes of eMail.)
3.  Any other gotchas I need to worry about with FiOS?
4.  Any other suggestions for how to proceed?



-- 


Casey Bralla
Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation
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