How can I get informed about the dynamic IP address of my computer?

Question

I have two PCs at home with two different Internet connections. I want to use a remote desktop connection, but my IP address is dynamic.

Is there any software I can install on Windows XP, which can solve my problem?

I tried Logmein, but it's not as easy as Remote Desktop.

Answer 1

Any dynamic DNS provider should work.

Here's a fairly big list: http://www.inatech.eu/inadyn/dyndns_list.html

Some routers or router firmware (like Tomato and DD-WRT) provide dynamic DNS features, so it means you don't need to run the provider's dynamic DNS software on one of your local PCs. Useful if you're NAT'ing several PCs.

Answer 2

Get a free account on DynDNS and use their Dyn Updater

Features

• Updates your DynDNS hostnames to resolve to your remote IP address
• Full-featured, easy to use interface
• Windows Service integration
• Works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server and Windows 7
• Dyn Internet Guide setup assistance. Provides an option for configuring Dyn Internet Guide on your Windows computer during installation, enabling a better, faster, and safer Internet.
• Maintains communication with Dyn to prevent Dynamic DNS hosts from expiring due to inactivity
• Logs activity to file, displays visual indicators of the Updater status
• Automatically determines which network interface to use, automatically detects proxies
• IP detection in real time (directly connected) or every 10 minutes (behind a router/NAT)

Answer 3

You can get free [sub]domains from no-ip.com, which you can use instead of IP addresses when connecting to your computers through RDP.

They have a DNS Update Client, but many routers have the ability to send IP updates to no-ip.com and other DDNS providers.

If you already have your own domain, you may prefer to use ZoneEdit, which is what I have been using for the last two or three years instead.

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As the title of this question may bring other people here who are looking for something a bit different, this is a script I made to show your public IP address from the Windows command line (you need wget for it to work):

@echo off

:: WhatIsMyIP.cmd

if [%1]==[-h] goto :HELP
if [%1]==[--help] goto :HELP
if [%1]==[/?] goto :HELP

wget -q -O %temp%\MyIP http://automation.whatismyip.com/n09230945.asp
for /f "delims= " %%G in (%temp%\myip) do set PublicIP=%%G & del /q %temp%\MyIP
echo. & echo Your public IP address is %PublicIP%
if [%1]==[--clip] echo %PublicIP% | clip
goto :EOF

:HELP
echo. & echo Usage: whatismyip [--clip]
goto :EOF

:EOF