Porting static IP

robatwork

Anyone ever got anywhere with trying to port their external IP to another ISP?

For reasons I will go into if anyone is bothered, I would like to change ISP but keep the same address. Seems like this is completely impossible.

Rob

esuhl

I would imagine it is "impossible" -- aren't IP addresses allocated in ranges to ISPs?

Surely it can't be that hard to update the records on your existing devices... can it? (I'm imagining some complex corporate setup here!)

fwor

In most (if not all) cases it simply isn't possible. The ISP will have been assigned a block of addresses, and, because of the way routing works, you can't simply take one out of the block and give it to another ISP.

And that leads to a question: why would you want to port an IP address anyway when DNS makes it completely unnecessary for any normal user?

closed

The reason is relevant to the solution

Anubis_2

Not possible - ISPs buy in block ranges of IP's that are specific to them.

Why would you want the same IP?

prowla

As per all of the other replies - the internet authorities assign IP address ranges to companies (eg. ISPs) and there is no mechanism for moving them to another company.

However, most access should be done by name, and therefore DNS should take car of it. So, if you have a server "mybox.myco.co.uk", then the underlying IP address should not be used directly and should never need to be known.

Darksun

prowla wrote: »

However, most access should be done by name, and therefore DNS should take car of it. So, if you have a server "mybox.myco.co.uk", then the underlying IP address should not be used directly and should never need to be known.

There are a lot of niche applications that don't support DNS and so a static IP address may be relied on. We have quite a few at work, if we changed the IP we would have to manually reconfigure hundreds of devices located across the country which would obviously be a bit of a headache!

I would be interesting in hearing OPs requirements though

prowla

Darksun wrote: »

There are a lot of niche applications that don't support DNS and so a static IP address may be relied on. We have quite a few at work, if we changed the IP we would have to manually reconfigure hundreds of devices located across the country which would obviously be a bit of a headache!

I would be interesting in hearing OPs requirements though

Sure, hence "most".

robatwork

OK here goes.

Our IP is in hundreds of our customers' routers (as the IP, not a dyndns) in either the "remote management" section or in a firewall rule to allow us access but block others.

Darksun's "bit of a headache" would be a monumental nightmare for us...I can't even easily scope the amount of work involved.

I am not happy with my ISP but stuck - I would be prepared to pay hundreds or possibly thousands to move but keep my IP as this would still be cheaper than the work above.....

When I chose ISP back in the ....past.....they were a small, knowledgeable, well respected ISP. And I'm talking modems here. Come to think of it there were only a few back then, demon, clara...bt, only a few others. Anyway over time they were subsumed by (read SOLD OUT to ) a larger ISP, who were taken over by a larger one...who are now one of the least respected and worst performing ISPs.

I'm not sure what lesson I learnt here is, or how I could have avoided this situation.

boxst

robatwork wrote: »

I'm not sure what lesson I learnt here is, or how I could have avoided this situation.

Unfortunately the only lesson is not to hard code something that has the possiblity of changing.

Darksun

Well in that case, could you not sign up for a new ISP with a static IP and for a time continue your old subscription? This would give you time to remotely access the routers and add the new IP in. Would be an effort but surely something that could be done remotely