|
My web server has a dynamic IP, provided by my
ISP, Comcast cable. For those of you not familiar with the terminology
this means the internet address may change every time I shutdown and
reconnect the cable modem (in reality this doesn't happen that often, but that's a different story).
If you are connected to the internet by modem (phone, cable or DSL modem), it is most likely that you have a dynamic IP, too.
Because I don't have a commercial web server, I will never pay extra bucks for a static IP address and I'll stick with quasi-static dynamic IP...
These pages can be accessed using
multiple names no matter what is the current IP I have assigned,
because I am registered with a couple of names with free DNS
services. Click on the links below to go to the
homepage of my dynamic DNS providers. There you can create your own
account and register your own DNS name, by choosing a preferred subdomain name
from the list of domains they have available (e.g. you.theirdomain.com).
|
|
http://www.dtdns.net - I have registered http://alinconstantin.dtdns.net with them |
|
http://www.dyndns.org - I have registered http://alinconstantin.homeip.net with them |
|
http://www.dyndns.org - I have registered http://alinconstantin.dyndns.org with them |
In case you want to use different DNS providers than mine, David Smith maintains a
List of Dynamic DNS Providers with
ratings.
|
To access these page at any time using one of the names above,
I have to let the free DNS servers known my current IP address. There are a lot of programs that
can be used for this purpose, starting from Perl scripts and open source C++ programs to more
complex ones that installs as Windows services. Personally I prefer those running as NT services
because there is no need to be logged on to have the DNS updated, and there is harder to stop or
close them by mistake.
I'm sure you will find a client to fit your needs
by looking here or
here or just by searching for "dynamic DNS clients" on any search engine. |
If you're using a firewall/router in your home you may also want to check the firewall's settings. Some firewalls may offer similar functionality to update the DNS records with free DNS services (my Netgear WGT624 can update the DNS records with dtdns.net) so you may not need a separate DNS client after all.
|
Even further, because all the above domain names are harder to remember,
I bought from NameZero.com 2 domain names:
http://www.alinconstantin.com, and
http://www.alinconstantin.net.
These DNS names are redirected to one of the free dynamic DNS addresses above, which
means that whenever you write in your browser http://www.alinconstantin.com the browser is automatically redirected
to http://alinconstantin.dtdns.net which resolves to my current IP address and you can access the web server on my machine.
When I created the server NameZero provided one year registration of DNS names for free in exchange of a few
advertisement banners added to the page. That was a good deal for me and a good way for them to attract new customers.
Hopefully they'll have that offer back... |
Many thanks to those making some of the above possible for free! |
|