help me how to figure out how keep tabs on my home IP :)

[schwim]

Hi there everyone,

I would like to be able to connect to my media server via vnc. The IP changes every once in a while, so I need a way to report the IP to the outside world. I don't want to use a service like dyndns, I'd rather handle this in a home-grown solution for the fun of it.

I thought of using a php script and open up a browser on the media server and set it to refresh every hour or so. The problems I see with this is that its awfully resource intensive for something like this and if the page ever fails to load, it tends to botch the refresh loop on the browser.

It's an old xp install so I thought a small app to ping the php script, but unfortunately my knowledge of programming languages could fit through of the eye of a needle.

Since you guys get me out of all my php jams, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask your thoughts on the matter. Any thoughts would be welcome!

[dalecosp]

If you have an SSH client installed, you might even be able to reverse-SSH and open a port on a public, known machine that you can connect to from the WAN; the reverse tunnel would then connect to your machine at home. It's certainly "doable" in Unix/Linux environments (I have this set up to my home network). Probably "doable" in Windows as well.

[dalecosp]

Ooh, another one I've used, much in the vein of your thought ... install Lynx and have it doing the page loads. Much more lightweight than a "real" browser.