FTP server on cable dhcp connection?

[kuber]

I have a cable connection, w/ dynamic IP and would really like to set up a ftp server for myself-ie to access stuff from work.

I have read that it is possible to get around dynamic ip, but I can't find any info anywhere about it. Any tips/leads would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kuber

[speddling]

most cable companies have a long IP lease so it shouldn't be an issue. You could always register a domain and point it at your IP with a dynamic DNS company.

[posterboy]

AT&T cable in Atlanta has only an 8 hour lease. But, what if I have hardware trbl, etc.in the last hour? I use a cron job to invoke pump -R each hour, and I use dns2go.com to resolve DNS in here. Works pretty good.

[Craig McPherson]

Originally posted by posterboy:
<STRONG>AT&T cable in Atlanta has only an 8 hour lease.</STRONG>

You're lucky, I'm on a one-hour lease.

However, you'll never change IPs unless your box is down when the lease expires. You'll keep the same IP for three years if you keep the box up for three years, no matter what the lease time is, unless they have a very bizarre DHCP configuration.

Now, as to the question: you simply need to sign up with a dynamic DNS hosting provider. Most are free (at least in certain circumstances), but there are a few commercial options if you want to go that route. The best choice IMHO overall is Zoneedit (http://www.zoneedit.com), which also happens to be free, unless you have over a million or so DNS queries per year, which is unlikely. With ZoneEdit, though, you already have to own a DNS zone so that you can point it to ZoneEdit -- most usually by purchasing a domain name. ZoneEdit can provide full hosting to any domain name you own for free. However, unlike most dynamic DNS providers, they (AFAIK) won't give you a subdomain -- ie. yourname.theirname.com. If you don't want to shell out $12 for your own domain, you want to look for a service that offers a free subdomain. I bet DHS.org probably does this: they're a replacement for the long-defunct and sorely-missed Monolith.

[chikn]

Originally posted by Craig McPherson:
<STRONG>You're lucky, I'm on a one-hour lease.
However, you'll never change IPs unless your box is down when the lease expires. You'll keep the same IP for three years if you keep the box up for three years, no matter what the lease time is, unless they have a very bizarre DHCP configuration
</STRONG>

That may be true with yours but RoadRunner and Bellsouth DSL around my parts both will stop functioning when the lease expires and requires an address renewal to start working again.

[Craig McPherson]

That's not what I meant. Of course the lease has to be renewed, but renewing the lease doesn't change the IP. As long as the box is up and can renew the lease before it expires, the IP will never change. No, the connection won't work if the lease expires, but if the box goes down, the lease will never expire. Renewing a lease doesn't change the IP, unless the DHCP server's configuration has changed (like it's decided not to give out that IP anymore). As long as your system is up, and the DHCP server is up, and there are no other problems, the lease will always be renewed, it'll never expire, and as such the IP will never change.

One clever tactic is to, if you have to take your system down for some reason, always renew your lease right before taking the system down. You'll have a full lease period in which you can keep your system down, then once you bring it back up, you can reclaim your IP. If you take your system down near the end of the lease period, chances are it will have expired and someone else will have taken it.

[ 01 October 2001: Message edited by: Craig McPherson ]

[Craig McPherson]

There are two ways to obtain a DHCP lease:

ASKING FOR A RANDOM ADDRESS:

1. The client sends a DISCOVER.
2. The server sends on OFFER of one or more IPs.
3. The client sends a REQUEST for one of those IPs.
4. The server sends an ACK, and the lease is complete.

ASKING FOR A SPECIFIC ADDRESS:

1. The client sends a REQUEST for that address.

2. If the server refused (ie, that address is leased to another client), it sends a NACK to the client, and the client falls back to the previous DISCOVER process.

3. If the server allows the client to have that address, it send an ACK, and the lease is complete.

"Renewing a lease" in DHCP means simply making a REQUEST for your current IP address, as in the second set of steps. The server will always grant it unless something weird is going on.

[ombra]

You could download DNS2GO for Deerfield software. www.dns2go.com (http://www.dns2go.com)

I use it and love it!

[d23]

I've used these guys for years, they've never let me down and they have lots of clients for updating your current IP to them.
http://www.dyndns.org

You'd basically tell your friends your FTP site address is me.dyndns.org, "me" being something of your own choosing, then they forward people to your current IP, depending on whatever client you're running is telling them your IP is. Even though my IP hasn't changed in over a year, I still use one, just 'cause it's also easier for people to remember the FTP site address that way instead of handing out a dotted quad address that makes me sound like a total nerd.

[Devrdander]

I use www.hn.org (http://www.hn.org) for my host, they allow just plain vanity accounts like yourname.hn.org or you can also do domain hosting too, they give you a fairly full setup with A lines, Cname and MX records, and you can point your primary A line to yourname.hn.org giving you a decent service, its currently free too to boot... though theyve been talking of making it a pay service, I run a perl script from hn that update my ip, its crond to run every 30 minutes...