Hello all, I am a newbie. I am building a web server for home use using an old machine I have and am putting web server software on it and am having a problem finding an inexpensive solution for a static ip. I am using dsl verizon and they frown on home use of static ip, but happy to provide me one if I take out a 2nd mortgage. Is there a way to trick the dsl modem into a static ip address or is there an inexpensive service out there. I am probably looking in the wrong places or not asking the right questions, any advice will be appreciated.

Assuming this box is behind a router, assign a static ip to this box, such as 192.168.0.40 - then set your router to redirect all port 80 calls to the .40 server.

You can use something like dyndns.com to easily "find" your box wherever you are.

Hostpc's trick is fine, but it will not give you a static real world IP. You would have to use a dynamic name service like dyndns.org/com to find your machine.

There is nothing you can do to force your provider to give you a static address. That is their choice, not yours. At the same time, I'm on a dynamic IP cable modem, and my address hasn't changed in the last 8 or so months. If you leave your router on all the time, odds are good you'd keep the same address for quite a while. That's not a guaranteed truth, just something I've seen from experience.

Peace,
Jim

I asked the support over at dyndns.com to see if I could use their service to help me out with this and got the response:

I assume this means I can't do this or just do what you said in the previous response?

The dyndns client does that exactly. Your machine signs into their system with a username/pass, and the IP used by your connection gets logged and linked to an address, like yourname.dyndns.org.

Their service is free, and works well for having a home website on a dynamic address.

Peace,
JimBass

I also tried bit confusing some more discription like step by step can you provide please it will be very help full for all of us

So you mean I go there I see several services, mail hop, http referer and 4 or 5 dns services, which free service are you referring to?

Does this also mean my web address would be whatever.TLD.com or in this case www.mywebserver.dyndns.com)

This would bring the next question of what hostpc said:

I haven't obtained any new hardware yet, should I be compiling a list of things that you may recommend I don't want to get to a shoulda, woulda, coulda phase.

Thanks again in advance for all your help

This is the free service you want from dyndns - http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/

I do mean that, although your use of TLD is incorrect. A simple "domain" would have been better. TLD stands for Top Level Domain, which are the things like .com, .net, .org etc. Dyndns.com is a domain, and you would be subdomain.domain.com.

You will have to assign a local static IP to your linux machine holding the website. There are dozens of ways to do that (static defined on the server, static assigned by the DHCP device by fixing the MAC of the server to a given address). There are also many different ways of setting up the network. You could do it with just a router forwarding port 80 to the linux server, but I would suggest getting a firewall in place as well. That can be a simple software firewall (IPtables) run on the linux machine, or you could setup an old machine as a smoothwall firewall (distro designed to be a simple-to-use firewall) or get a low end hardware firewall, or a great hardware firewall (Cisco Pix or better). Which one is right? Any or none of them. You do want to protect your server, so something needs to do that, but you do need less protection if you're only serving non-interactive data, and you do need more if you run php and still more if you have a database. Every additional piece of your website is also a security risk to some level, so plan accordingly.

Peace,
JimBass

Wow Thanks Jim I will work on that and let you know how it turns out, Thanks again!!!