One IP for multiple machines

[Mike Bilow]

gaf wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

> First, you should know that cable modems are usually configured 
> as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) agents, which 
> means that they provide an IP address dynamically.  The DHCP 
> "lease" term for a particular assignment might change once a 
> year, once a month, or once a day, depending upon how much your 
> cable modem provider chooses to torture you.  As a result, your 
> IP address may change suddenly.

 g> With Mediaone, they also provide a DNS entry for your host
 g> name. They  rarely change IP addresses. Only when they
 g> renumber the network. They  have done this once in the past
 g> year, and they announced it in advance.

That's good information.  However, keep in mind that the existence of a domain
name is no assurance that the IP address will not change.  Most DHCP servers
these days have some facility for updating DNS information, either WINS on
Windows NT or DDNS on everything else.

There are also schemes for getting name service when no one is willing to
provide it because your IP address is dynamic: "http://www.ml.org/ml/dyndns/".
 
-- Mike