Hosting a website with a dynamic IP address

[guynouk]

For the past 8 weeks we've successfully hosted our own website. We use dyndns.org to alias our dynamic IP address (changes several times a day) to our static website name.
Does anybody know if we will have difficulty being listed in search engines - google especially?
I've read that google caches it's own DNS - this could mean we're not in the same place when google comes back!

[Dreamquick]

I've read that google caches it's own DNS - this could mean we're not in the same place when google comes back!

Not 100% but I'd suggest that you run the risk of Google's cache not knowing the new IP when it does the crawl - their cache times are often talked about in terms of weeks so you could end up being unlucky...

Personally I think that dynamic IP's for websites are a total waste unless you can manage to consistently keep the same IP for weeks/months as well as ensuring the website maintains optimal uptime.

- Tony
<edit>Bad spelling</edit>

[edited by: Dreamquick at 3:54 pm (utc) on Mar. 26, 2003]

[guynouk]

Not 100% ...

Anybody know for sure? I know Bret Tabke uses dyndns.org.

[mack]

There are a lot of services out there that offer non redirection for not static IP addresses. They are great for personal stuff but I wouldent try and host a comercial or high traffic site on them. You also need to concider the tos of your isp. Are you even allowed to run a server on their connection. Sometimes you are sometimes you arent. I think it is great for teaching your self about server administration but you need to concider the alternatives, such as low cost hosting. I also use some dynamic ip services but not for anything permenant, but it is good to be able to mess around server-side for a while.

[Dreamquick]

Not 100% reflects two key factors;

1) Google DNS caches are expressed in terms of weeks - DynDNS may have a method of shortening this but I wouldn't like to say.

Also see this post which talks about DNS TTLs which are the root of your woes;
[webmasterworld.com...]

Google KB;
[webmasterworld.com...]

2) Connection - specifically how long you can keep a single IP and how long you can keep the machine running. Changing IP too often or not having the machine alive when someone machines a request are going to kill your chances of getting crawled.

In all honesty Brett may use DynDNS but since he's a professional I'd wager he has a nice little setup which either has a static IP or possibly a dynamic IP which can be retained indefinitely - which is where using DynDNS really makes sense.

Since you haven't said what type of configuration you are running it with there are a number of factors which stop me giving an absolute answer.

For a more focused version of dynamic donnection issues try here;
[webmasterworld.com...]

...oh yes and site search is your friend!

- Tony

[guynouk]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I had actually read most of those links via the search but even though they are informative none gave me a definite answer.

One of the searches turned up the fact that Brett uses dyndns.org so I was secretly hoping I may get a reply from him.