Static IP addresses

Most Internet connections are assigned dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) addresses: each time your connection is made, a different, temporary IP address is assigned. With static IP addresses, your connection gets the same value every time you connect to the Internet.

Static IP addresses permit a machine to offer Internet services like web, ftp and email. Because a specific, known address is associated with your connection, other machines on the Internet know where to send traffic destined for your server.

For security purposes, many companies are installing firewalls to protect them from malicious attacks. It is common practice to require all offsite legitimate users to have static addresses if they go through the firewall to private sections of the corporate network.

Using Network Address Translation (NAT), a single static address can serve an entire company. Msen can configure a solution to deliver web traffic to one server, ftp to a second and email to third. Each desktop workstation would have only general network access. Shared resources on these machines would not be visible to general Internet users.

If your company has multiple locations, Msen can design a VPN solution using a single static address at each location to securely make remote locations appear to be on the same LAN.

Services and Prices

Non Msen customers may obtain static IP addresses. To do this, Msen uses a VPN to deliver traffic to end users having any form of Internet connection. All traffic is routed to Msen first, then delivered to the customer. This service carries a charge associated with the bandwidth desired to be used by the customer in addition to the price for the static addresses.

	Service		Setup		Monthly
	256K Bandwidth		$250.00		$250.00
	512K Bandwidth		$250.00		$500.00

Please contact us to discuss the system requirements if you are interested in this service or need additional bandwidth.

Technical Details

Every machine on the internet is assigned a numeric IP addresses of the form A.B.C.D. This is how computers exchange Internet traffic. A reasonable analogy is the global telephone system: anyone in the world can call you if they enter the correct set of digits. On every computer on the Internet, entering www.msen.com gets translated to 148.59.19.5 which then directs the user to Msen's web page. 148.59.19.5 is unique on the Internet, like a telephone number, it always reaches the same destination.

With the recent growth of the Internet, and because IP addresses must be unique, Internet Service Providers strive to use them efficiently. One way to do this is by using an address pool for a class of service. An an example, a dialup customer calling a given city will be handed a random address out of such a pool. While the address will be similar on successive calls, it may not be the same.

The typical home user needs to be able to browse the Internet but does not need or want to offer services. As long as they have a valid, Internet-reachable IP address each time they connect, they can access web pages, send and receive email and play online games. So a dynamic IP address is just fine.