After several years of having a static ip address, I switched my DSL service that has only a dynamic (DHCP) ip address. I knew I would miss having a static IP address. no-ip.com offers a free service where you can install a agent on your machine. Here is more information about the service. When your ip address is updated from your provider, the DNS name you created automatically is updated. There is no need to remember the ip address.
I used no-ip.com for DNS resolution years ago and their service is impressive. They offer a wide array of services including mail forwarding, server monitoring and more services which are DNS related. I can’t think of another DNS provider as stable as they have been. In all the years I used them, the only outage was a brief one when MS Blaster hit. Yes, that has been a few years ago. 🙂
So if you have a dynamic ip address and occasionally want to access your home machine, being able to create a DNS name is as easy as 1..2..3.
If you have another service similar to this, please let me know.
Pondering Thought 
For years, my IP address never changed, but about a year ago it started changing once in a while. I ended up using DNS-O-Matic (http://dnsomatic.com) to detect when my IP address changed and “publish” it to various services I use. It’s worked reliably since I set it up. I just read that I can configure my router running DD-WRT to update DNS-O-Matic, making the client unnecessary! I’ll have to try that out.
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I tried using dd-wrt on my linksys router, I ‘bricked’ it. So I figure running a client isn’t all that bad. 🙂 I use RRAS as my router, so I have a pc on all the time. Having an agent from a service I trust isn’t all bad. My 2 cents.
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I’ve been using DynDNS for about a year now since switching to Sky Broadband here in the UK. The config for the DynDNS service is actually built-in to my Netgear router’s management interface so it was a breeze to set up – and completely free. I was told that I needed to download the software client and that the router software wouldn’t work properly but so far its been completely reliable and I’m happy.
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for the additional information. I’ve been part of a thread that many people mentioned dyndns.org as their DNS provider.
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no-ip cant find my ip adress
it says
“Updating to IP: Checking…”
“error connecting to server to check IP adress”
what do i do?
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