What is an External IP Address
An external IP address is the unique identifier assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). There are to types of external IP address, static and dynamic. Static is fixed and therefore never changes. Dynamic changes every time you connect to the internet.
Many Internet users, having access through router and running DHCP, experience the same problem - what is the real IP address assigned to them by ISP (Internet Service Provider)? For example, you have a server and you want it to be accessible from outside. So you forward the router port to your local IP and provide the clients with the router external IP address to access the server.
If you are lucky, it will work for a long time, if not - your server may become inaccessible the next minute after you set it. The reason: your ISP changed IP address assigned to you. Your router knows it (and dynamically refreshes all the information required for Internet access), your clients dont (and keep hitting the server with an old IP address, wondering why its not responding).
Many Internet users, having access through router and running DHCP, experience the same problem - what is the real IP address assigned to them by ISP (Internet Service Provider)? For example, you have a server and you want it to be accessible from outside. So you forward the router port to your local IP and provide the clients with the router external IP address to access the server.
If you are lucky, it will work for a long time, if not - your server may become inaccessible the next minute after you set it. The reason: your ISP changed IP address assigned to you. Your router knows it (and dynamically refreshes all the information required for Internet access), your clients dont (and keep hitting the server with an old IP address, wondering why its not responding).
