How do you get a static IP?

[m0ds]

I'm having a little difficulty figuring out how to get a static IP. I thought I had one, but obviously not cos it changes every day! Is there any free way to get a static IP, will my ISP allow it? If someone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it

[TheYak]

What's your setup like?  At least with my ISP, they're dynamic IP only unless I go with a "professional" account.  With a router you can assign your PC a set IP, but it'll be based upon the gateway set by the router.  I imagine this is for serving web pages or something?  It can be set up as a web-server based on the router-pc connection, but you tend to have to open ports on the router for internet-in traffic leading to potential security problems (unless they're correctly addressed).  All-in-all, the preferred option seems to be getting on a static IP with your ISP (usually costs a little more). 

[Alynn]

Yes generally speaking you have to get a higher package (usually called a business package or something similar) to get a static IP. Unless you are running a webserver or something similar there is really no need for a static IP.

[m0ds]

I've been given FTP access for a website, but for some reason they needed me to supply them with my IP address - which I did, but then found out it keeps changing. I presume it needs to be static for me to log into it. But, oh well - I can't afford to fork out for a static IP, so I'll have to look for other hosting.

Thanks for the advice though, Yak & Alynn

[Alynn]

They needed your IP to assign connection rights, there are many servers that are so locked down they have an allow file that allows only certiain IP addresses to even connect to the machine. Which seems like the case here, they have an allow file for ftp access.

and NP m0ds...