Hello, folks!

Been considering switch from AOL to SKY. Having read the woeful experiences in this forum, I'm having second thoughts. AOL doesn't support VPN because they use dynamic IP addresses. If SKY also use dynamic IP addresses, I don't think I'll bother with a switch to SKY.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
mursol

VPN is a transparent service so ANY ISP supports VPN protocols. The VPN 'pipe' is dependent on the source and destination networks and not the ISP in the middle. Hope this helps.

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

Only thing you may need to consider is if the ISP have a static IP address or a dynamic one. If your IP address is static then VPN is fine but if its dynamic you would have to write down your IP address everytime you reocnnected.

An IP address if you dont know if like a phone number, every computer or network server on the planet has a unqiue number.

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'Now, I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

Sorry to disagree with you but it really does not matter if your source has a static or dynamic IP address. Only the 'destination' needs to have a static IP address as this is how you identify the target 'public' router. If it was any other way you would have a useless and totally insecure system which would negate the need for a VPN in the first place.

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

Thanks for your replies folks. Sounds like I should be okay with SKY - provided of course if I actually manage to obtain a broadband service from them in the first place. I might wait a while and follow the other experiences through this forum. If I decide to go for it, however, I'll keep you all posted.

Sorry to disagree with you but it really does not matter if your source has a static or dynamic IP address. Only the 'destination' needs to have a static IP address as this is how you identify the target 'public' router. If it was any other way you would have a useless and totally insecure system which would negate the need for a VPN in the first place.

We are both right, I was guessing he wanted to connect to his house using a VPN as thats what I do when I need something off my home PC.

Basically if you need to connect to an office VPN then its the exact same thing you just need to make sure the destination IP is static. You can use VPN on a dynamic IP address by using a 3rd party program that you install on the host computer that polls a server and provides a DNS address but I doubt you will need to do that.

You shouldnt have any problems with Sky although I would ring and ask them first.

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'Now, I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

Hi ,

As a matter of interest we only supply broadband with fixed IP.
This is for a number of reasons, partly for customer benefit, partly because we use it for validating smtp mail traffic, but perhaps most importantly - also so we can remotley manage the customer end equipment.

Please refer to my other posts to gain a better insight as to my thoughts on this and other braodband issues.

REgards

Eric-ISP (ISP based in the midlands)

This is one of the bigger worries that we in the IT Security business have a real problem with. Fixed IP addresses are only really necessary if you are dealing with hosting or something that really needs to stay 'visible' on the net at the same IP address.

In user-land it is a security risk that is unwarranted. Remote control of a customer's machine should NEVER be done unless all else has failed and only then with supervision as well as understanding on both sides. Any good tech support dept in an ISP would have the ability to control session-based PCs anyway, so I still don't understand the need for a static IP address. The argument for validating SMTP trasffic is really lame - sorry, but that is just ridiculous and the sort of police-state tactics that the morons from SORBS try to do.

As a parent, if you forced me to have a static IP address I would dump you as an ISP in a New York second. NOT having a fixed IP address is as important a security issue as anything else. I hope you make the risks clear to your customers ...

Not being rude - just very anxious that advice in a USER forum is misleading people into thinking that they need a static IP address for VPN which the USER does NOT - end of story.

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

I wont have a ISP who wont give me a static IP address. I can see your point of view from a security standpoint but if you are secured up and behind a firewall you should not have a problem.

My webserver at home is a Linux machine, I feel perfectly safe behind it but I can see why a static IP could cause problems.

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'Now, I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

I have a suggestion regarding you requirement for a fixed IP address. My understanding of the issue is that you want one device to communicate to another device and having a fixed IP address allows you to locate the device on the internet.

You could use a free service to provide you a domain name which you can assoicate with your router. Each time your router connects to the internet it updates the dns server with your new IP address.

Using this method is should allow you to connect to your devices using an allocated domain name.

One such service that is free is http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/

I hope this helps.

I have been using VPN over sky BB for over a year now - no probs!