Why Dynamic DNS?

Bob wants to host a website on his home computer after recently installing his ADSL line or dialup account. He's got Linux and Apache setup and ready to go - but there's a problem. His IP address keeps changing on the internet.

So Bob signs up for a FIRSTNET Dynamic DNS account - and maps a domain to his current IP address. Now people on the Internet can reach his web server just by typing in his domain name into their browser, instead of the ephemeral IP address. Every time the IP address changes, his client program sends a message to FIRSTNET - and FIRSTNET then updates its database to serve the new IP address, usually within 2 minutes.