Question 1

What Is a Static IP Address?

Accepted Answer

A static IP address, also known as a fixed IP address, is an identification number assigned to a host. It remains the same in time and is indefinitely reserved for that particular service. The static IP doesn't change even after turning the device off and switching it back on. Typically, static IP is used within an internal network (LAN) for services where it is undesirable to have their IP change dynamically to ensure continuous availability (servers typically).

Question 2

How to Get a Static IP Address?

Accepted Answer

There are two main options how to get a static IP: 1) Lease static IP address from your Internet Service Provider 2) Use cloud VPNs with dedicated static IP. Both ISP and business cloud VPN providers can assign you a shared or dedicated public IP address. The shared one remains the same every time you go online. However, it is mutual to other entities (tenants, organizations), which is not overly convenient when you want to hide your servers by IP whitelisting. A dedicated static IP address is a private address for a user or a group of users which is not shared with anyone outside your organization.

Question 3

What Is IP Whitelisting?

Accepted Answer

IP whitelisting is a method of preventing unauthorized access by allowing only trusted IP addresses to connect to the system. A prerequisite is a static IP address, as dynamic addresses change regularly, and therefore the whitelist would be outdated with each change, requiring extensive manual work to make continuous adjustments.

Question 4

What Is a Static IP Used for?

Accepted Answer

There are several reasons why to use static IP when operating a network. The most common ones include network access restriction and remote access to services.

Restrict Network Access

One of the most common use cases is restricting network access to your internet-facing services by using a firewall, where only whitelisted IP addresses are allowed to connect to the service. Only with static IP can you define a firewall rule valid indefinitely.‍When using a dynamic IP address, the firewall rule would become obsolete anytime the IP address changes. As a result, the whitelist update would be necessary (which implies extensive manual work in large networks).

Enable Remote Access

Question 5

Why Use VPN Static IP?

Accepted Answer

Imagine you host services inside yourlocal network, data center, or even in the cloud and need youremployees to access them from anywhere. It is possible to make thesystem available publicly, but it would make it vulnerable to networkattacks (man-in-the-middle attacks, DoS and DDoS attacks,eavesdropping typically, data breach).‍Therefore, it is reasonable to makeyour resources available only to known IP addresses (so-called IPwhitelisting - see the box above) as part of security controls.

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