Wireless internet

[person]

@grahroll

A user however can use DDNS to circumvent these limitations, anyone who has dynamically assigned addresses from their RSP can use DDNS to overcome this.

For a dynamic (non-static) IP address, yes, but that isn’t what the post said. The post said private IP address (as distinct from public IP address). DDNS will not help if you have a private IP address, whether it is static or dynamic.

@omy005aw

This is what my ISP had in the fine print […]

What bugs me is that, in 2022, ISPs are still saying this. Just do IPv6 already - and then there will never again be a need for NAT.

It is possible that that is what your ISP means … both IPv4 and IPv6 are available but IPv4 is behind NAT while IPv6 of course is not. You tell us.

@mark_m

Does a fixed IP increase the probability of attempts to break into your home network?

Probably yes but not a lot.

There are probably some hackers who specifically target static IP address ranges because those are more likely to be running servers.

On the other hand, there are a lot of hackers who just try all IP addresses regardless.

I know from experience every day that static IP addresses are targeted with attacks against known weaknesses or known attack points that only really make sense against J. Random home user with a dynamic IP address. So I think there are a lot of hackers just trying all IP addresses.

(I do also see attacks against known weaknesses that only really make sense against businesses. There are just a lot of attacks.)

The single biggest factor would be … a successful hack will bring increased probability of further hacks.

@mark_m

For the average home owner how would they go about setting up DDNS?

The ideal scenario is that your router supports DDNS out of the box. Just enable it in the router, choosing the service provider that you went with in the pull-down menu.

So … starting point … read the User Guide for your router to see whether it even supports DDNS.

@mark_m

Is an alternative to pay for a fixed IP?

If you have a public IP then, yes, that can be an alternative, at the whim of the ISP. Some ISPs will only offer a static IP address on a business plan. You would have to ask your ISP.

@grahroll

Most businesses prefer fixed addresses as remote access is much easier for client machines, DDNS just means another step in the process

IP address change creates an outage on each change too. So a business is unlikely to want DDNS if offering many services. Many business these days though will have outsourced the services or at least put them on the cloud anyway, so remote access is one of the few things that they would still definitely want a static IP address for.

@grahroll

If someone has been botted or are a spammer then another user using the same address when dynamically allocated to them may find that they become blacklisted as the address becomes blacklisted.

Good point. That can happen with a static IP address too and, yes, it can be a total pain getting off a blacklist.

[SueW]

@grahroll

If someone has been botted or are a spammer then another user using the same address when dynamically allocated to them may find that they become blacklisted as the address becomes blacklisted. This can be a pain, in this case using a DDNS service can resolve that issue more easily than asking SPAM Cop or others for removal from a blacklist.

AHA! I wonder if thats what happened to me… I was suddenly unable to access most of the web for no apparent reason. My provider was unable to help beyond giving me a static (and different) IP and setting my DNS to Google’s.