web server over phone line

[telenet]

Hi everyone,

I put a personal web server on my pc and created
a small client to automatically update the dynamic
ip address at a page I have at an ISP so that it
jumps to my web server at home.

It seems to work. I can view my pc from any pc
attached to the internet. Is this always the case?
Are there any limitations (aside the dynamic ip
problem) to anyone anywhere viewing my server on
my pc? If not then that means that alot of people
have web servers on their pc and serving the internet
directly from home (even if using dynamic ip).
Are there problems with proxy servers at IPSs?

It just seems to simple to be true ! Thanks alot
for any comment.


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[dilettante]

Welcome to the Internet as it was designed to be used.

There are problems with your solution to dynamic IP addressing, for example if you want to run a mail server your web redirect isn't too useful, same for any other service you might want to host.

There are true dynamic DNS providers out there, who accomplish this by having you run a client that refreshes your box's IP address in their DNS server every so often. This gives you real DNS access to your home or small office machine, enabling pretty much the whole range of services you might want to host.

I'm not aware of any that are free anymore, but dynamic DNS service is priced in the $10 to $30 per year for basic service. Still, you might find that this is reasonable for your needs. If you look around there may be a couple freebies out there yet too.

Basically you are right, it is this easy.

Problems include tying up a connection with your ISP forever however, and this is really a no-no for dial service unless you pay for dedicated access. If you had so-called &quot;always on&quot; service via cable or DSL you get around this problem. Many of these providers however have terms of service that prohibit their customers from hosting services.

You have to remember that the big corporations like AT&T, Time-Warner, and the like wish to turn the Internet into a replacement for television, albeit interactive so that they can use it to sell you things online. They prefer a market in which the medium is largely a broadcast medium, where no upstart can do something like run his own web server.

One can only wonder how long before you won't even be able to obtain hosting services for personal or small-biz web sites.

To be fair, there have been problems with home peer-to-peer service hosting and bandwidth consumption - or so we are told. I have to wonder how much of this is really the record-peddling arms of these companies fighting back creatively though. Cable systems in particular work hard to cram as many homes as possible onto their &quot;party lines.&quot; To make this as profitable as they can, they have stolen back their customers' upload bandwidth to make room for more broadcast consumers who mostly download content and would have no reason to run a server needing upload bandwidth.

DSL providers like to make claims that you have &quot;your own line&quot; but the reality is that all those subscriber lines plug into one switch-like device and are fed by an aggregate pipe. This is why more and more DSL providers are beginning to change their terms of service to prohibit servers as well... their backbones are getting too full to keep doubling subscribers as they wish (or need to to &quot;stay profitable&quot. Why do you think most DSL is ADSL (asymmetric, as in you can view a lot and send a little)?

All this makes me wonder.... but anyway I've drifted way off topic here so I'll shut up now.