First let me start off by saying that this tutorial is not about how to host a webserver on your computer. That was done quite well by swizzeron. This tutorial has to do with those of you who are interested in hosting a webserver on your computer, but are stuck with a dynamic ip. For those who don't know, a dynamic ip is one that is non-permanent; and thus it changes. This is opposed to static ip address' which are permanent locations on the internet assigned to computers. How did dynamic ips come to be? Well as far as I can tell, they were created to deal with the large amount of internet users. To put it simply, there are too many people using the internet to each get a permanent address. Thus, some ISPs (internet service providers) assign temporary addresses every time you connect.

What does this mean for people who want a webserver but have a dynamic ip? Well, lets see:

- it means that people who want to visit your website (including you) will never know which ip address to visit without checking first

- it means that domain redirection services will not work

- overall it means that you have a server which is extremely difficult to access

My solution involves using a program to update a remote server with your IP every time it changes. People who wish to visit your server would do so through the remote server.

For those of you who aren't internet savvy think of it this way: Imagine a city is the world wide web. Each home represents a separate computer and thus, a separate ip address. Mailing a house (visiting the server) would be quite easy; after all you just need their address. However, this particular city has a large amount of mobile homes/rv's which are constantly moving from one site to another (representing changing or dynamic addresses). Mailing a friend who lives in a mobile home would be a problem because it would be hard to tell where they are at any given moment. However, my solution works sort of like a P.O. box. The box represents a permanent building which redirects your "mail" to the appropriate mobile home. This allows you to "mail" them wherever they may be.

If you are not sure if you have a dynamic ip, ask your ISP or visit http://www.whatismyip.com and periodically between network resets. If you have a changing ip address, you have a dynamic ip.

So what is this so-called solution I have? To tell you the truth, it's quite simple really. Lets begin:

1. Make sure you have a working webserver on your computer
2. Visit http://www.no-ip.com/ and sign-up for a free account
3. Once you have gone through the email confirmation process and logged in, click on the downloads tab. Download the appropriate version of No-IP.
4. Click on the first "Your NO-IP" tab and click the "Add" link underneath the "Hosts/Redirects" heading.
5. Setup the configuration for your redirection host. The domain you create here will be the new address to your website.
6. Install the No-IP program you downloaded and login using the account you created.
7. Allow approximately 5-10 mins for an update and then your website is ready to go. It can be accessed from the domain you specified on the site.

There you have it! An easy way to grab a dynamic ip by the horns and ride it. Figuratively of course.

Dynamic IP is usually given for Dial Up connection, not for dedicated connection.

And a dial up connection is usually slower. Maybe its speed is not enough for your own browsing needs, so it's not wise to run a public server on your computer that can be accessed from world through your dial up connection.

It will only waste your time. Why don't you just host your website on a best quality free hosting astahost.com ? You can use your bandwidth to do something else.

It's not just about that.

Why test on AstaHost and strain your time and servers when you can build everything locally, it's just better in so many ways I won't even get into it.

But you may also want to ask from friends or colleagues to test it out for you and rather than have to upload the changes or whole thing to a web server all the time, you want it setup so they can access straight from where you are working and see instant changes.