Just changed ISP and been given a STATIC IP address. Is this of any real use unless I plan to run a web server?

Some sites use an IP address as part of their security and preferences system, but it's not common.

Nowadays I don't think there's a vast amount of advantage unless you're doing techie stuff. I have fixed IP here but that's because I sometimes develop software that is easier to test if I have a fixed IP - one less thing to go wrong. :)

The two names (Windows name and DNS name) are the same as each other, and neither ever changes. Other clients may therefore reliably access your machine by its DNS name (e.g., using ftp ).
With a static address your machine is more easily accessible by non-Windows internet services. This is not a significant advantage as people seldom telnet to their Windows PC.
What it means, is that you get the same IP address all the time. This becomes an advantage if:

you are running any kind of server over your connection (htttp, smtp, pop3). It means you could setup DNS entries for your domain name, so that certain hostnames resolve to your IP address. For example, www.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com would resolve to your static IP address of x.x.x.x.

you need to provide yourself remote access from your home, to another server somewhere. You can open the firewall on the other server to only allow traffic in from your IP address, and not any others. With a dynamic IP, you would need to reconfigure your remote firewall every time your IP changed

Having said that, the last two ISPs I used which had dynamic IPs (Pipex and Blueyonder) never changed my ip in about three years of combined use! I'm sure many do though...

I have a static ip and run a few servers, but iv set up a dynamic dns anyway becouse its a pain to remeber an ip :thumbsup:

I am on Blueyonder which uses dynamic IP adresses, but if I don't switch off my hardware firewall or cable modem for a year I always have the same IP address, because the lease of the address isn't forced to renew once it's captured.

If I were ftp ing from another location on to a server in my house then it would be a real pain if I had to discover the ip address first. My mate did a workaround for this when he wrote some code which found the current ip address and sent it via an email to his mobile phone or something like that.

I have a static ip and run a few servers, but iv set up a dynamic dns anyway becouse its a pain to remeber an ip :thumbsup:
Don't you have that the wrong way around?

Only thing with a fixed IP address is that if you get banned on a forum where the admin gets thingy enough to IP ban, you've blown it.

But the way round that is don't do a Kirky (soz mate) and get banned regularly enough to annoy teh admin.

Don't you have that the wrong way around?
Dont think so?! Its a free service by http://www.dyndns.com/ .

Dont think so?! Its a free service by http://www.dyndns.com/ .
Oh sorry, I misunderstood.