[NCLUG] A question about a web server and broadband.

[Michael Dwyer]

Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2002 at 08:40:54AM -0700, Daniel Miles wrote:
> >Naw, I've got dynamic IP from ATT and it's never changed in a two years,
> >go for it.
> 
> @home actually allocated a static IP.  ATTbi says they'll be changing the
> address, but so far haven't that I've seen...

For what it is worth, the DHCP protocol allows you to hold your address,
pretty much forever, simply by always returning a ping.  So long as you
return a ping, that address cannot be handed out to someone else.  So,
people with Linux firewalls that are up 24/7 are probably much more
immune to the DHCP problem than those who turn their computers off
overnight.

Once you have been granted an address, you can hold it for as long as
you can return pings.  The only way to knock you off that address, short
of coming to your house, is to do something like changing the default
gateway on you.

Mind you, this kind of action is strictly against the AUP.  But I really
wonder if AT&T is going to be successful in using DHCP to put n+m hosts
on n IP addresses...  What is the lease timeout for the addresses we're
given?  I've never looked.  It would have to be pretty short to make it
worth AT&T's time...  With more and more people installing always-on
networking equipment, I have to wonder how long until the "DHCP Server
is out of addresses" error replaces the "phone line busy" error as the
scourge of the Internet...