Get a Server’s IP that is Always Changing

So, my server at home’s IP address is always changing. Sometimes it’s sitting there broadcasting my development server’s website to the world on an IP that I don’t know.

So, when this happens, I have to go get physical access and bring up canyouseeme.org or something like it.

There are a few solutions to this problem:

  • DynDNS – A good solution, but I hate that they will cancel your service when you don’t login.
  • Get a static IP from your ISP – Costs extra money
  • Somehow, get the server to broadcast it’s address to a static place

I went with the last option. You could do this in a multitude of ways. You could have your server send it’s address in an email to you periodically or on boot. You could FTP it to a free FTP server. You get the idea.

I did this:
* danfolkes.com : that keeps it’s IP. It has PHP.
* lab.danfolkes.com : that changes it’s IP.

I setup a cron job on lab.danfolkes.com to run every 8 hours and open a PHP page:

0 */8 * * * /usr/bin/curl "http://danfolkes.com/path/to/file.php"

The page on danfolkes.com will record the last 50 IPs sent to it in a logfile:

	// danfolkes.com/path/to/file.php:
	$file = 'log/file.txt';
	$max = 50;
	$content = "\n<br/>" . date("Y-m-d H:i:s") . " " . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . "";
 
	$filecontents = file_get_contents($file);
	$filecontents = $content . $filecontents;
	$filecontents = implode("\n<br/>", array_slice(explode("\n<br/>", $filecontents),0, $max));
	echo $filecontents;
 
	file_put_contents($file, $filecontents);

So, if my server’s IP ever changes, there will be a nice little record of the last known IPs. I can go into my DNS settings for lab.danfolkes.com and set them to the new IP.

<!-- Log File -->
<br/>2013-07-30 12:56:09 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-30 04:56:10 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:56:21 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:56:19 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:56:15 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:56:12 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:55:48 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:55:32 24.125.92.189
<br/>2013-07-29 20:50:04 24.125.92.189

IPMap Python Ip Address Locator Command Line Script

ipmap python ip location geocode

This program uses this site IpMap to get peoples location based off of their IP address.

It’s written in python. Enjoy.

Download SourceGPLv3 Code. Give back.
Usage:
python ipmap.py 74.125.45.100 all
python ipmap.py 74.125.45.100
python ipmap.py (This will get you the help screen)

Args:
all = Prints all details
nomap = Gets All, no map
loc = Gets: Country, Region, City
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