What is dynamic IP address?

[syphus]

Why are they a more convenient way to run a network? There is no factual backing for that claim! If anything, a dynamic ip is a disadvantage.

A Dynamic IP is more useful to the home user in terms of anonymity. There's also something to be said for security; if someone manages to obtain your IP and tries to DoS you, it's a simple affair to get a new IP. The only real advantage to a static IP is when using you want to host a domain and services. This excludes most people.

The question of network configuration is getting off topic, but anyway; it all depends how the network is architected.

On a home network, DHCP, Static, it hardly matters.

On large scale networks, static IP allocation is a bloody nuisance. If you have a corporate network with 200+ systems, allocating them all an IP is infeasible. Issuing long-life dynamic leases with DHCP is much more preferable.

For an ISP, static IP addresses have to be carefully managed; if they allocate static IPs from their dynamic pool, every static IP permanently subtracts from the number of simultaneous dynamic clients that can be served, in addition to making it harder to make configuration changes. If they've planned ahead and have a range of IP addresses specifically for static hosts, they could run out and be forced to play around with their scopes. There are many strategies, but it's never exactly a simple affair, which is why they make you pay through the nose for it.

[Hazel]

A Dynamic IP is more useful to the home user in terms of anonymity. There's also something to be said for security; if someone manages to obtain your IP and tries to DoS you, it's a simple affair to get a new IP.

Oh, great. In other words, people can troll sites and vandalise wikipedia without being able to be banned or traced? That's a really admirable thing to be able to do.

In our holiday home, we have a dynamic ip. All it has ever done is had me assigned to an ip that has already been banned on some site, that's a real advantage.