Problem: Office DSL and hosting situation

scsi stud

Senior member
Feb 14, 2000
222
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Good afternoon,

I have a question about DSL -- a few weeks ago, I got a DSL connection at our office from Verizon, it's a 'small business' DSL, meaning its just for browsing purposes from what they say. Their offer is a DHCP DSL connection, which our computers share over a hub via PPPoE or whatever it's called.

My question is -- I need to host a web server on this DSL connection for business purposes, obviously as its a business DSL. However, because of the connection's DHCP nature, I'm not sure how to make it so that the incoming line that comes in becomes a static IP or something. I talked with Verizon and they said they don't offer static IPs for their DSL connections and that if we wanted a static connection, we would have to get a T1 (ranges from $500+, something that is definitely not an option for us).

Now, is there any way I can make that DHCP connection into a static IP or something to connect to the web server so I can host the website in-house? Would some sort of hardware router, or something else work? Please let me know as soon as possible, as we are running out of options.

Thanks in advance!
 

Snoop

Golden Member
Oct 11, 1999
1,424
0
76
Their are some ways to host with a DHCP, but i not to sure thats the type of setup you need. Its hard for me to believe that Verizon sells something labeled 'business DSL' and it doesnt have a static ip. I would look Here and find your company a new provider.
 

Ladi

Platinum Member
Apr 21, 2000
2,084
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Before you decide to run your website off your Verizon DSL, you should probably check into whether or not you have *guaranteed* uptimes for the connection (contract should cover it) and check the power situation in your building (do you have provisions for keeping the server up during power outages?). You should also look into whether or not you will be able to run your own authoritative/reverse DNS server(s) or if Verizon will do so far you and if you have enough IPs to run the site and allow for your office users (either behind NAT or not). Also consider if you have enough bandwidth to serve the pages to your projected customer base as well as maintain acceptable connection speeds for the office, the hardware to run the server(s) -- you will need more than one physical machine if you're planning on running e-commerce/online ordering or anything requiring large databases, and if you have the experience and expertise to run a business-critical webserver in-house. If your website is going to be a major addition to the business, you may want to look into finding a colocation facility or just a webhosting provider to take care of the technicalities of running the server as well as providing guaranteed uptimes for both machine and connection and taking care of administration duties.

If you still think running the server in-house is the right choice (and it certainly could be), you cannot *make* your IP static, but you can choose a variety of ways to update your DNS servers with your new IP much the way dyndns.org does. However, you will *never* be able to run your own DNS servers unless you upgrade to a T and get a static IP.

Good luck!

~Ladi