How can you reliably serve anything to the internet without a static IP address. You can't, right? Wrong.
I was trying to find a way to use my dhcp powered residential internet connection to run an an ftp server or any other kind of server for that matter. I spoke to my provider and was informed that I would have to pay an extra $20 per month for a static IP. This pretty much doubles the cost of the connection. Now why would I do a thing like that? I wouldn't but luckily for me I did a little research before I gave up on the idea.
I found that there are a number of services that allow you to forward a domain name of your choice to any IP you like. They even provide a utility that will keep your IP up to date when your ISP forcibly re-provisions you. I think that's very cool indeed and what's more, if you use No-IP.com it's free. Even if you, by some chance, have a static IP it's still a very useful, and free, service. Oh yeah and the auto-update software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows.
I am in no way affiliated with No-IP.com I just think they are cool.
