Static IP address

[mcintg]

Does anybody have any experience of getting a static IP address from NTL?
The jokers at my work say that I can only work from home using a VPN if I can get my service provider to give me a static IP address rather than using dynamic addressing. I spoke to a general service desk person he he got a bit confused but said that it can be done but it costs thousands

[Chris W]

The only way to have a static ip will be to have a business line... and yes it will probably cost thousands.

[zovat]

Originally Posted by mcintg

Does anybody have any experience of getting a static IP address from NTL?
The jokers at my work say that I can only work from home using a VPN if I can get my service provider to give me a static IP address rather than using dynamic addressing. I spoke to a general service desk person he he got a bit confused but said that it can be done but it costs thousands

Never tried getting one with the residential service - however I have had the same IP for a couple of years now.. (I never need to reboot my router....)

I seem to recall the business broadband had a static IP - but I could be wrong...

oh and

edit : beaten too it again
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Just looked at NTLs web site - business 1.5M (single user) is 34.99 a month - not sure is that includes static IP - but is cheaper than old 1.5M personal service...

I'm fairly sure you can't get a static IP even on NTL Business. I've heard people complaining about that before.

But even so, I'm not sure why you need a static IP to connnect from when you use your corporate VPN solution. Ours doesn't, and it has been specifically tested and proven to work on a domestic NTL connection.

[mcintg]

Thanks - the problem is my IP address does change as the office I use is also used as a bedroom and it gets a bit like blackpool for visitors what with the modem, wireless router, print server etc. all flashing away - so when we have guests my other half turns off the comms equipment

To be honest I think the people I'm working for are on a loser insisting on static IP but I could do with a conclusive answer to wave in front of them
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Originally Posted by Chris T

I'm fairly sure you can't get a static IP even on NTL Business. I've heard people complaining about that before.

But even so, I'm not sure why you need a static IP to connnect from when you use your corporate VPN solution. Ours doesn't, and it has been specifically tested and proven to work on a domestic NTL connection.

Does the VPN ate your work use those number generating data tags or is there another form of security sitting in there?

Originally Posted by mcintg

Thanks - the problem is my IP address does change as the office I use is also used as a bedroom and it gets a bit like blackpool for visitors what with the modem, wireless router, print server etc. all flashing away - so when we have guests my other half turns off the comms equipment

To be honest I think the people I'm working for are on a loser insisting on static IP but I could do with a conclusive answer to wave in front of them

Considering that most people who have VPN on their work laptop, have it so they can work from home, and the majority of domestic broadband products do not give you a static IP, it surely is some half-assed VPN product that insists on you having a static IP in order for it to work.
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Originally Posted by mcintg

Thanks - the problem is my IP address does change as the office I use is also used as a bedroom and it gets a bit like blackpool for visitors what with the modem, wireless router, print server etc. all flashing away - so when we have guests my other half turns off the comms equipment

To be honest I think the people I'm working for are on a loser insisting on static IP but I could do with a conclusive answer to wave in front of them
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Does the VPN ate your work use those number generating data tags or is there another form of security sitting in there?

Dunno I'm a user, not a techie! And I'm not currently using VPN myself because my home is on an un-enabled rural telephone exchange.

[Aragorn]

It may be (i'm not a vpn expert) that the VPN they use only admits authorised IP addresses, in which case you are indeed stuck. Do you have remote offices that connect via the VPN - they would probably have fixed IP's.

If you can't get around the fixed IP, there are afaik niche ADSL providers that will give you a fixed IP for a reasonable charge - check out http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

[mcintg]

They are actually in the process of setting this VPN up so that I, and people like me can work from home - however, they seem clueless as to how to set it up, so I'm having to beat them over the head with issues like this until they see sense.

[Croker]

I seem to recall that the basic business bband accountis about £130/month. I just checked when my lease expires on here and it seemed to say Januaury 2038

Originally Posted by mcintg

Does anybody have any experience of getting a static IP address from NTL?
The jokers at my work say that I can only work from home using a VPN if I can get my service provider to give me a static IP address rather than using dynamic addressing. I spoke to a general service desk person he he got a bit confused but said that it can be done but it costs thousands

Go here http://www.dyndns.org/services/dns/statdns/ and set one up, and that will be fine for VPN use.

It's also FREE.

(Make sure that they use the domain name, rather than the IP address for the VPN - that way, you can update the DNS record if/when your NTL IP address changes.)
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Originally Posted by mcintg

They are actually in the process of setting this VPN up so that I, and people like me can work from home - however, they seem clueless as to how to set it up, so I'm having to beat them over the head with issues like this until they see sense.

I use http://www.dyndns.org/services/dns/statdns/ for the same reason and it works fine.

[jtwn]

Was going to recommend that too ^

I use it and its pretty good. Don't know why though, I never can seem to change my ip address, its been connected to a laptop, another computer and the router recently, nothing. The laptop was connected via usb aswell...nothing. Obviously when i tried to change router mac (which would usually do it) that did nothing also.

[goldchip]

Originally Posted by Chris T

I'm fairly sure you can't get a static IP even on NTL Business. I've heard people complaining about that before.

But even so, I'm not sure why you need a static IP to connnect from when you use your corporate VPN solution. Ours doesn't, and it has been specifically tested and proven to work on a domestic NTL connection.

Because the answering server/firewall will be told only to accept connections from predefined IP addresses - for security reasons.

[altis]

I've set up 2 VPN links and both use dyndns.org to provide the addressing so that we don't need static IPs.

Actually, the node in the middle does have a static IP address but that's on a business ADSL account - £32 per month with Eclipse.

[KingPhoenix]

Originally Posted by mcintg

Does anybody have any experience of getting a static IP address from NTL?
The jokers at my work say that I can only work from home using a VPN if I can get my service provider to give me a static IP address rather than using dynamic addressing. I spoke to a general service desk person he he got a bit confused but said that it can be done but it costs thousands

The VPN i have configured, Juniper Netscreen 50, can lock down to IP address, however i use it for my sales reps to be able to login and track orders, place orders, view stock, view current state of machines blah blah blah..... This is done by using a system generated key... the netscreen gives me a key per user, i install this into the VPN client... at this point, the only user that can login, is the one associated with that key. It also does checks on things like machine identity, MAC address and user / pass to ensure it is the autheticated user accessing regardless of IP address... Some of them even use GPRS at times, and then ring up and complain that its so slow.... WELL DUH!!!...

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Considering that most people who have VPN on their work laptop, have it so they can work from home, and the majority of domestic broadband products do not give you a static IP, it surely is some half-assed VPN product that insists on you having a static IP in order for it to work.

Exactly my thoughts. The whole point of a VPN is that it provides a secure connection over an inherently insecure connection, such as HTTP. Sounds like they can't work out why the VPN isn't working and are trying a fob off.