[WXC/VFX] Static IP charging

Forums › Vodafone New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] Static IP charging

hads

391 posts

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#17849 14-Dec-2007 15:45

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the $9.95/month charge for a static IP?

According to http://www.xnet.co.nz/staticip/ it costs $9.95/month for a static IP. I have a couple of people setup with static IP addresses so I can conveniently SSH to their boxes and do updates etc. Are people that already had a static IP going to be charged or only new applications.

This is unfortunate as a friend was about to setup a static IP so I could manage their box for them too but they aren't keen on paying extra.

Cheers,

hads

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

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95 posts

Master Geek

#100005 14-Dec-2007 19:54

The alternative to a static IP is to just use a dynamic DNS service. I have several clients with non-fixed IP and I use DNS4ME (www.dns4me.com), a small software package that runs on their server at US$40 per year. There are free services as well and the client's ADSL router may support dynamic DNS in the setup (mine do).

Dale

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nate

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#100339 16-Dec-2007 23:02

This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves with the bigger ISPs, they all seem to charge for a static IP. Not too sure about the smaller ones, but all the bigger ones I've come into contact with charge for a static IP. It's only a reservation in DHCP!?

I use ihug at home, and when I applied for a static IP they tried to charge me. I said that I've been a loyal customer for many years and I would go elsewhere if they tried to charge me. I've had a free static IP since.

You have to admit $10 for XNet is better than Xtra's and ihug's $20 per month.

/rant.

Detruire

1399 posts

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#100350 17-Dec-2007 02:48

$10 is still a full 10GB and over 25% of my bill!

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PenultimateHop

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#100353 17-Dec-2007 03:20

nate: This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves with the bigger ISPs, they all seem to charge for a static IP. Not too sure about the smaller ones, but all the bigger ones I've come into contact with charge for a static IP. It's only a reservation in DHCP!?

It's quite a bit more than just a "reservation in DHCP" (ignoring that DHCP is rarely used in PPP based networks for IP assignment).

ISPs have to justify and document their IP address usage to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), which for this region is [url=http://www.apnic.net]APNIC[/url]. This includes documenting static IP address assignments; and why those assignments are there. Without accurate documentation and constrained IP assignment, an ISP may face the possibility of having their next IP address request rejected.

Thus, many charge a fee to cover:
    - Admin time in setting up and managing that static IP;
    - The fact that they are now reserving an IP address 100% for you, no matter what;
    - Covering the engineering time to support static IP services, which can be incredibly expensive depending on the network topology;
    - and finally, to act as discouragement from needless address waste.

lonney

85 posts

Master Geek

#100377 17-Dec-2007 09:47

signz:
The alternative to a static IP is to just use a dynamic DNS service. I have several clients with non-fixed IP and I use DNS4ME (www.dns4me.com), a small software package that runs on their server at US$40 per year. There are free services as well and the client's ADSL router may support dynamic DNS in the setup (mine do).

Dale

Pretty much every adsl router I have seen supports dyndns and it's free for the basic service which is all you should need. The advantage of configuring the router to do the dyndns updating is it updates when the IP changes or is reset, and you dont rely on a PC being on or an application running.

coffeebaron

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#100420 17-Dec-2007 13:57

Also if you log into your Xnet account page, it shows your current IP address if you need it.

Would be nice to know why Xnet have started charging for this though? Seems to have happened without warning, and it is one of the features that geekzoners have commented favourably about for Xnet.

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nate

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#100439 17-Dec-2007 15:24

PenultimateHop:
nate: This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves with the bigger ISPs, they all seem to charge for a static IP. Not too sure about the smaller ones, but all the bigger ones I've come into contact with charge for a static IP. It's only a reservation in DHCP!?
It's quite a bit more than just a "reservation in DHCP" (ignoring that DHCP is rarely used in PPP based networks for IP assignment).

ISPs have to justify and document their IP address usage to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), which for this region is [url=http://www.apnic.net]APNIC[/url]. This includes documenting static IP address assignments; and why those assignments are there. Without accurate documentation and constrained IP assignment, an ISP may face the possibility of having their next IP address request rejected.

Thus, many charge a fee to cover:
- Admin time in setting up and managing that static IP;
- The fact that they are now reserving an IP address 100% for you, no matter what;
- Covering the engineering time to support static IP services, which can be incredibly expensive depending on the network topology;
- and finally, to act as discouragement from needless address waste.

Thanks for the explanation, good to actually know the inner works as I'm only assuming from the limited networking knowledge I have.

Doesn't Orcon provide all broadband connections with static IPs? If so, how do you think they explain this to APNIC?

RedJungle

Phil Gale
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#100452 17-Dec-2007 16:21

I too would love to hear an official word on this. My current intention is to leave IHUG for XNet once Fusion is available to save some money. Having to pay for a static (when IHUG are giving it for free) will obviously make the switch less attractive now.

cokemaster

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#100488 17-Dec-2007 18:09

nate:
You have to admit $10 for XNet is better than Xtra's and ihug's $20 per month.

Xtra provides free static IP addresses on most of their full speed plans.

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stu28

249 posts

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#100554 17-Dec-2007 22:56

signz:
The alternative to a static IP is to just use a dynamic DNS service. I have several clients with non-fixed IP and I use DNS4ME (www.dns4me.com), a small software package that runs on their server at US$40 per year. There are free services as well and the client's ADSL router may support dynamic DNS in the setup (mine do).

A Good free services is No-IP http://www.no-ip.com

Detruire

1399 posts

Uber Geek

#100556 17-Dec-2007 23:01

Dyndns is more widely supported by routers.
(Both of the modems/routers I've had supported it. Only one supported NoIP)

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grant_k

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#100561 17-Dec-2007 23:20

Detruire: Dyndns is more widely supported by routers.
(Both of the modems/routers I've had supported it. Only one supported NoIP)

Yes, agreed. Even quite old routers (from 2003 or earlier) supported DynDNS and certainly everything produced in the past couple of years does.

I am using DynDNS with my Xnet Xtencity connection to provide a Quasi-Static IP as Xnet are unable to provide a Static IP for this plan. It works just fine for VNC access and even for an old H323 VoIP system I am using. With DynDNS enabled in the router, it is totally seamless and just as good as a Static IP in pretty much all ways that I need to use my connection.

From 1999 until 2002 we used a Nokia M1122 router which did not support DynDNS. I had to use a monitoring program to detect changes in IP and it was really flaky, more frequently crashing out with run-time errors than updating our DynDNS account. Whereas with DynDNS in the router, your account is updated immediately the IP address changes.

DynDNS is free for the basic accounts, which are all I have ever used. Free = Good

PenultimateHop

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#100570 18-Dec-2007 01:26

nate: Doesn't Orcon provide all broadband connections with static IPs? If so, how do you think they explain this to APNIC?

I know they did provide static IPs to all broadband connections to start with, but I don't know if they still do. I always wondered how they managed to justify it to APNIC; and would love to hear what that justification is. However, as it's commercially sensitive, I doubt we'll ever hear it.

Although, if they move into an environment with multiple BRAS/LNS and have to cope with subscribers appearing on different BRAS/LNS around the network, they'll begin to see how much of a pain it is having 100k+ prefixes for subscribers in their internal network.

hads

391 posts

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#100620 18-Dec-2007 10:52

Thanks for the dynamic DNS suggestions, I'm aware of that, static IP's are just more useful.

I was more after an answer (which I guess can only really come from a WXC employee) on what the reasoning behind the charge is and whether people that already had a static IP are going to be charged or only new applicants.

A static IP is an important feature for some people and one that some probably aren't willing to pay for when other ISP's aren't charging for them.

Cheers,

hads

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

thekiwi

295 posts

Ultimate Geek

#100632 18-Dec-2007 12:20

PenultimateHop:
nate: This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves with the bigger ISPs, they all seem to charge for a static IP. Not too sure about the smaller ones, but all the bigger ones I've come into contact with charge for a static IP. It's only a reservation in DHCP!?
It's quite a bit more than just a "reservation in DHCP" (ignoring that DHCP is rarely used in PPP based networks for IP assignment).

ISPs have to justify and document their IP address usage to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), which for this region is [url=http://www.apnic.net]APNIC[/url]. This includes documenting static IP address assignments; and why those assignments are there. Without accurate documentation and constrained IP assignment, an ISP may face the possibility of having their next IP address request rejected.

Thus, many charge a fee to cover:
- Admin time in setting up and managing that static IP;

- The fact that they are now reserving an IP address 100% for you, no matter what;

- and finally, to act as discouragement from needless address waste.

Sorry I cant see the point of those last two above.
ADSL is service which is permanently connected. If they have 250 ADSL Customers they WILL NEED 250 IP addresses reserved for those addresses, cause unlike dialup they have to assume that all of their customers will be connected all of the time. Thus there is no needless Address waste and they have to provide you an address all the time no matter what.
They wont have their requests rejected for as above, ADSL is a 24 hr service.

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