Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
| Just how dynamic is a Dynamic IP with Teksavvy?
Apologies in advance if an answer has already been posted in this forum - I did run a few searches but was unable to locate what I'd like to know.
I'm a Rogers Hi-Speed Cable customer and I think I've finally had enough of their despicable treatment of customers, so am close to moving my service to Teksavvy. With Rogers, they certainly don't guarantee a static IP, but the reality is that my IP tends to remain unchanged for months if not years (until they do major network reconfiguration). It's sort of handy to have a semi-fixed IP address. It's certainly not critical to me that my IP stay the same - not important enough to really want to pay $4/month to guarantee it. So realistically....I'm curious....how often does a client's IP address get reassigned under Teksavvy? I'd be perfectly content if my dynamic IP was able to say fixed for perhaps a month at a time. On the other hand, if it changed every few days, I'd consider paying the extra for static.
Maybe I'm out to lunch and DSL works fundamentally different than cable - if so, could someone please politely educate me? I'm in west Ottawa, Ontario, if that's relevant.
Anyone know how long the dynamic IP stays constant with Teksavvy?
Thanks folks! |
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nanook
Premium
join:2007-12-02 | In my experience the IP stays static for days or weeks at a time, however, it is subject to change whenever TSI or Bell do maintenance on their infrastructure (or if something like a power outage causes your modem to reboot.) |
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RuralOtt
join:2004-12-07
K2G | reply to Maestro77
Every time I reboot my modem, I got a new IP address. |
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Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Maestro77
Thanks guys.
I'll clarify a bit. I leave my modem on all the time (and it's on a UPS).
So I guess my question more relates to how long the dynamic IP will (typically) stay the same presuming I don't power cycle the modem.
Thank! |
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jfmezei
Premium
join:2007-01-03
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Maestro77
Cable works with DHCP. Say they give out 48 hour leases. DHCP requires both client and server maintain state awareness across reboots. (aka: write lease info to disk).
So when you reboot your PC or router, and it makes its DHCP request, the remote DHCP server still has the previous lease on file and will essentially renew it and grant you the same IP as before. If you let your DHCP client off for more than the lease period, then the lease expirtes and that IP becomes assignable to someone else.
With PPPoE, there is no concept of a lease. This is dial-up technology. You login, they give you whatever IP is available. When you PPP session times out or you log out, that IP is released and available for the next person to login.
Now, PPPoE sessions can last weeks/months. But when they do network maintenance, they may kick you off one router and you'll log back in on another router, you get a new PPPoE session and possibly a new IP. Similarly, if you have a power glitch, you may get a new IP. |
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Ares45
Hands off my bytes, Bell
Premium
join:2007-11-14
Toronto, ON | reply to Maestro77
Every time you login with PPPoE, you will be given a new IP address. TekSavvy doesn't limit the amount of time you can be logged in for, but Bell has a nasty habit of doing maintenance without warning. |
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Gokuu
join:2001-08-27 | reply to Maestro77
DYNDNS et al
One can easily have a PPPoE stay up for months with a clean line, good modem and no Bell maintenance.
If you want a real static IP, you either pay for it, or use a free service like DYNDNS. |
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Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
edit:
May 8th, @11:54AM
| reply to Ares45
Re: Just how dynamic is a Dynamic IP with Teksavvy?
said by Ares45  :Every time you login with PPPoE, you will be given a new IP address. TekSavvy doesn't limit the amount of time you can be logged in for, but Bell has a nasty habit of doing maintenance without warning. Ok....thanks for the various replies. Guess I'm a little confused about having to "log in". A dumb question I suppose...but remember I'm on cable and there is no need to explicitly log in. Computer boots....and I'm on the internet.
Please note - I'm also not familiar with the term PPPOE so referencing it's operation is unfortunately not helpful to me.
Are you guys saying that after booting my PC, there is a specific step I need to take to "log in" and use the internet? If so....what exactly is that step....do I go to a log in page with my web browser?
I appreciate everyone's responses - this is a great forum - but need to dumb it down a bit for me since I know nothing about DSL.
Thanks! |
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Ares45
Hands off my bytes, Bell
Premium
join:2007-11-14
Toronto, ON | PPPoE is the protocol that you use, and you can either login with your modem (provided it has routing functionality), a separate router (most common), or directly from your computer. Like cable, PPPoE can allow for always-on access. |
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Gokuu
join:2001-08-27 | reply to Maestro77
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pppoe |
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Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Ares45
said by Ares45 :PPPoE is the protocol that you use, and you can either login with your modem (provided it has routing functionality), a separate router (most common), or directly from your computer. Like cable, PPPoE can allow for always-on access. Thanks - but still not clear I'm afraid. You seem to be saying I have a choice about how I "log in". Certainly I prefer an option that doesn't require me to have to manually log in with a password, etc every time I boot my PC. If it's possible, I'd want my modem to do that for me. But you say "provided it has routing functionality"....so.....does the modem that Teksavvy will sell me have that functionality??
I will also have a router between my PC and the modem....so if you're saying having the router log in the most common configuration....is there some step I'll need to explicitly take in order to get the router to log in once for me and not need to log in each time my PC boots?
I'm having trouble understand what I actually NEED TO DO to log into Teksavvy DSL service if I move to Teksavvy. |
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Ares45
Hands off my bytes, Bell
Premium
join:2007-11-14
Toronto, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| Yes, the modems that TekSavvy sells have routing functionality built in. If it's just your one computer, you can use that instead of a separate router. At any rate, you enter your username and password into the router, and it maintains the connection indefinitely. So whenever you turn on your computer, you're already connected. |
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Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Gokuu
Thank you. However I was hoping to not have to become a network expert and educate myself in detail about the PPPOE protocol.
I was hoping folks in this forum could simply give me an indication how long (days, weeks, months) their dynamic IP typically stays the same. |
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Abattoir
join:2008-03-27
Ottawa, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Cogeco Cable
·Bell Sympatico
| said by Maestro77 :Thank you. However I was hoping to not have to become a network expert and educate myself in detail about the PPPOE protocol. I was hoping folks in this forum could simply give me an indication how long (days, weeks, months) their dynamic IP typically stays the same. Mine typically stays the same for days, as my apartment building's door buzzer isn't DSL friendly and I get disconnected every time someone rings up.
You'll keep the same IP for as long as your modem stays online. There's usually some reason every few weeks or months when your modem will need to re-establish a connection. If you depend on having a static IP, I'd recommend getting a DNS service instead. There are some free/cheap options out there.
If you have a router between your computer and your modem, your router will be able to log you in automatically. You will setup your username and password when you configure your router.
The only case when you would need to log in with your computer is when your computer is connected directly to a DSL modem that has no routing capability. That isn't you. |
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jfmezei
Premium
join:2007-01-03
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Maestro77
PPPoE is almost exactly like the PPP for dial-up.
TO establish a connection, you not only have to get the "carrier" signal, but after than, you send certain packets to establish a session with your ISP. You identify yourself to the ISP (username and password) and the ISP then gives you an IP. From then on, all yur TCPIP traffice is encapsulated into PPPoE packets. It is the PPPoE packets that travel through the ADSL cloud to your ISP, at which point the ISP removes the TCPIP packet from the pesky PPPoE envelope and you are then on the real TCPIP network to the internet.
Your "username" contains a username as well as a domain. Bell peeks into the PPPoE request packet to see this, and uses the domain to establish what destination your packets will be going to from then on. So if you have fido@teksavvy.com , then Bell knows that your pakcets are destined to the ISP registered as "Teksavvy.com" in the ADSL cloud.
The advantage of PPPoE is that you can switch ISP easily by simply changing your login information and Bell will then route the sessions to the new ISP.
One disadvantage of PPPoE is that the packet size isn't 1500 like on real networks, it is 1492 because PPPoE takes up 8 bytes.
On cable, you talk to the cable modem with real TCPIP with packets of up to 1500. The cable modem then encapsulates and encrypts your full packet for travel over the coax link, and this si totally transparent to you. From your perspective, the cable modem appears as a bridge in ethernet topology terms and the cable routers at the other end of the coax appear to be on your LAN.
The cable topology is emulated by the higher priced HSA service on ADSL. This gives you a true ethernet lan extension to your ISP with a permanent virtual circuit established between you and your ISP, and no pesky PPPoE stuffé. But bell has chosen to provde HSA as a premium service that is priced much much much higher than PPPoE. Telus on the other hand has non-PPPoE service as standard and doesn't charge a premium for it. |
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blizzak
join:2004-05-13
Mississauga, ON
 ·Vonage
·TekSavvy Solutions..
edit:
May 8th, @12:17PM
| reply to Maestro77
In your case, the router will be doing the logging in for you. In that case, you will not have to explicitly tell it to login, it will just stay logged in all the time if you tell it to. Check out this page of my DGL-4300:
As for the static IP thing, you connection will get dropped every so often due to network maintenance or whatnot. But depending on your uses, you can setup with a dyndns account, and setup a dns to point to your IP. On my router, here is the page used to do this, and you have to setup an account on their website:
This would work out totally fine if you were running a server, or doing remote desktop, or something of the sort.
EDIT: images reversed, coherency |
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Maestro77
join:2005-05-24
Stittsville, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Maestro77
Ok - I get it now. 
Thank you everyone for your kind assistance.
I'd be interested in any further anecdotal experiences how long the peoples' dynamic IP tends to stay the same.
My home is a new construction in a developing subdivision. Don't know if that might make me more, or less, susceptible to Bell messing things around and causing my IP to change. |
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recneps
join:2006-06-24
Whitby, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
·Rogers Hi-Speed
| reply to Maestro77
with a UPS you could keep the same IP for as long as there is constant uptime - i.e. no network maintenance.
I've had the same IP for up to 3 weeks I would say, which ended because of something bell was doing on the lines (while I was asleep, at like 4am.) |
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Name
join:2008-03-28
| reply to Maestro77
If you want to access your computer remotely, just sign up with »www.dyndns.com (free, no ads, no catches) for a dynamic domain name and install the appropriate dynamic DNS client software.
One everything is configured, all you need to do to reach your PC is connect to whatever dynamic domain name you've chosen. The domain name will stay the same regardless of how frequently your IP changes.
I've used dyndns for years and have no idea how frequently my IP address changes (other than when I recycle it automatically) because it's just not relevant to remote connections or local use.
--
Coridon Henshaw -=- »www.talisiorder.ca |
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nanook
Premium
join:2007-12-02
·Bell Sympatico
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Maestro77
A couple off related comments:
1. If you are on a marginal or flakey line then it is possible to lose DSL synch periodically. The modem will recover but your IP will change.
2. Many modems and routers are configured by default to do a PPPoE logout when your line remains inactive for some period. Make sure that you configure your modem (or router) to never timeout and drop your session (usually done by setting the timeout value to 0.)
Bottom line: If you want guaranteed static IP then pay the extra $4. If you can live with the occasional change of IP then use DYNDNS or similar. Otherwise your IP will change from time-to-time in unpredictable patterns. |
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