Any home users on the list?

[Dave Ihnat]

Michael described a number of valid projects, readily accomplished.  One
I would like to comment upon:

On Sat, Nov 26, 2005 at 08:55:41AM -0500, Michael Velez wrote:
> 	- I have a dynamic IP address but mutt and sendmail e-mail me the
> address to my DSL-provider's e-mail account whenever it changes, enabling me
> to actually do the ssh.

You are probably aware that you can go to www.dyndns.org and get a dynamic
IP domain name.  You can then install a Linux-based dyndns client that
detects the change in the local IP address and notifies dyndns.org to
change the DNS records for you.  This is probably the most common and
reliable way people handle dynamic IP assignments.  (Well, actually, if
you have a firewall appliance such as a WatchGuard SoHO or Firebox Edge,
dLink, or some other with firmware that knows natively about DynDNS,
it's simplest...but that's not a Linux project!)

Alternatively, especially if you're using your Linux box's interface
card as the external I/F and your DSL modem is in bridge mode, you can
act as your own DNS server, query your interface for its IP address, and
update whenever it changes.  This gets more challenging if you're not in
bridge mode, as you have to figure out how to query the DSL modem for its
external IP address.  It also requires a secondary DNS server somewhere.
It gets even more exciting if you're using an external firewall appliance
that doesn't support DynDNS (or you decide not to use that feature because
you want to do it yourself, dammit!), since you then need to figure out
how to query the firewall appliance.  Or use lynx or somesuch to strip
the address from a quick session to www.whatismyip.com, as one guy did.

Sorry for the long exposition--haven't had my coffee yet...
--
	Dave Ihnat
	ignatz at dminet.com