Is a domain needed?

[Trogdor]

I am running an apache server, but have not yet bought a domain. Is a domain really needed to access the server content, or ssh, or ftp, or whatever? I'm planning just to use http://my.ip.add.ress is that possible?

Thanks in advance.

[theN]

Hi

Is a domain really needed to access the server content...Technically NO, intuitively YES. A name is much easier to remember than an IP address (IIRC that was idea behind the domain names)

Who's the content for? If its for a small community then the IP would be fine. Otherwise it would be wise to get a domain name.

But again, stranger things have happened on the WWW. When guys came up with the long domain name 4guysfromrolla, much against then popular opinion in favor of shorter domain names, everyone thought/said "thats a long name, no one will remember that etc.". I heard that site went on to become a huge hit with the ASP community.

Guess it all boils down to content focus and presentation :)

hth
akr

[cidc]

If its just for mates and you don`t want to pay for one use www.dyndns.org its free. The naming not great but it will do for free.

I been using mine for about 4 months no probs.

I use Apache/FTP and web mail on mine.