CalTel Internet Support

When you have a “static” IP address that generally means you have an IP address that will never change. Static IP addresses are also typically assigned to your router manually, and you have to type in your IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway, DNS 1, and DNS 2.

Typically you only need a static IP address if you are hosting some sort of server like surveillance cameras. Some older IPsec style VPNs also need a static IP address, your company will let you know if that is the case.

We give each customer a static IP address, but we use PPPoE to dynamically assign the address to the router. We also assign you a static hostname at the same time, which is the preferred method of accessing your equipment remotely.

Most service providers use PPPoE in conjunction with dynamic IP address pools, so almost everyone’s experience with PPPoE is always with dynamic IP addresses. We permanently attach your IP address to your username. So every time PPPoE comes up, you WILL get the same IP address.

We provide this Dynamic DNS type service in the off chance that for some reason we had to change your IP address in a hurry. So for example, if your iPhone connects to your camera system at your house, instead of putting in an IP address, you would put in your static hostname (i.e ckt04.hosts.caltel.com:[port #]). If your IP address ever changed, you would never know.

Even if you were pointing your own domain name to your house, you can setup it up to use a CNAME instead of an A record to point to your house.

There are a lot of reasons why you may still want to know if your IP address changed. Call us and ask us to flag your service as sticky. What that means if we ever did have to change your IP address, we would make sure to schedule it with you prior to the change.

We honestly would try not to. It is a lot of work for us. We recently had to change a bunch of IP addresses because a DDoS attack was targeting it to the point they were unusable, and affecting other people. In that case, we had to change it rapidly, on a weekend, and being labeled, as “Sticky” would not have mattered. In the future we could theoretically have to change IP addresses to accommodate network infrastructure changes or something. If that were the case, we would contact you prior to making the change, and schedule it with you.

We can sell most customers a “Static IP 5 block”. The IP addresses are manually assigned, and would be less likely to ever have to change. Each “5 block” consumes eight IPv4 addresses, which are already in limited supply. This is the only way you can manually enter your IP address.