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Installation
If you are installing the full windows installer version, simply run the installer and follow the on screen instructions.
If you are using the zip archive, simply extract the contents of the zip archive to a folder of your choice.
Note: External IP is usable as a portable application that you can run from a USB drive but there are certain settings that you must use in order for it to work in such a manner that does not leave anything behind. Please read the section Running as a Portable Application later in the document.
Initial Setup
Once you have installed or extracted the application, you need to configure External IP before running it.
Note: It is very important that you perform this step because if you do not, you will receive a large number of errors and the program will not work. At is required that you configure External IP to work within your environment.
All configuration settings are set in the ExternalIP.ini file. This is a simple text file that can be edited in any text editor such as Notepad. Based on the information in this file, External IP knows how to act.
There are three parts to the ExternalIP.ini file:
- General
- FTP
Each one of these sections deals with a different part of the program and how it runs.
General Parameters
There are seven different parameters that can be used in the General section. They outline some basic features about External IP. These parameters and their functions are:
- CheckFrequency - determines how often External IP will check for an IP address change. This needs to be a numeric value which represent the number of minutes between checks. The default value is 360 (6 hours).
- LogFile - the name of the log file. Should only be a single file name without any path. This file will be created in the same directory that External IP is installed. The default value is ExternalIP.log.
- LastIP - the last IP address that was detected. If External IP has never been run or no IP was detected, this value is set to 127.0.0.1. You do not need to make any changes to this value as it is for internal use of External IP.
- LastUpdated - the last date and time External IP looked for an IP address. This is in year/month/day hour:minute:second format. If External IP has never been run, this value will default to 1969/11/21 00:00:00. You do not need to make any changes to this value as it is for internal use of External IP.
- OnlyUpdateOnChange - determines if an update message is sent when no External IP has determined that the IP address has not changed. This value must be either True or False. A message will be sent each time if this value is set to False. A message will only be sent if a change has been detected if this value is set to True. The default value is True.
- LogToFile - tells External IP to log information to log file indicated by above mentioned LogFile parameter. If set to True, will log to LogFile. If set to False, no log will be recorded. Default value is True.
- RunAtLogOn - sets External IP to start automatically when the system is logged on by making a change to the system registry. If set to True, External IP will automatically run each time you log on. If set to False, this will prevent it from running at log on. Default value is False.
Mail Parameters
This section controls all aspects of sending e-mails when the external IP address changes. It is very important that this section be customized so that the e-mails are properly delivered. Here are this section’s parameters:
- UseMail - determines if e-mail is used to notify the user that an IP address has changed. If this value is set to True, an attempt to send e-mail will be made. If this value is set to False, no e-mails will be sent and all of the other parameters that follow will be ignored. The default value is True.
- SMTPServer - the name of your SMTP server. This can be a hostname, DNS name, or IP address, as long as your system can resolve the address to an IP. This is a required setting and the e-mail function will not work if you do not have this set correctly.
- MailFrom - this is the e-mail address that will show up in the From: field when you receive the e-mail from External IP. It doesn’t really matter what this field is but it should be something that you will recognize.
- MailTo - this is the e-mail address that you would like all of the update information sent to. It is important that this is accurate and that the e-mail address is one that you have access to. Otherwise, you will never get the updates.
- Subject - this is the subject that will appear in the e-mail you receive. It can be anything that you would like it to be as long as it is something that you will recognize.
- Template - the name of the file that contains the template that the e-mail is based off. You can create your own custom templates for this file as long as the file resides in the application directory. The default setting is IPAddressMail.template which is the the default template that comes with External IP.
FTP Parameters
If you have some web space (chances are you do as most ISPs provide you with at least a little bit of free web space along with your Internet connection), you can have External IP push a web page or text file to this web site so that you can check what your IP address is at any time. I would suggest not linking to this web page from other webpages and setting the robots.txt file to exclude it from being indexed by search engines.
The FTP parameters are:
- UseFTP - determines if updates are reported via FTP. Set to True to report via FTP or False to not report via FTP. Default value is True. If this is set to False, all of the other parameters in this section will be ignored.
- Username - your username used to access your FTP server. This is required and will not work if it is not set.
- Password - your password used to access your FTP server. This is required and will not work if it is not set.
- FTPHost - your FTP server host name used to access your FTP server. This is required and will not work if it is not set.
- Passive - sets whether or not to use passive mode for FTP transfers. Uses passive mode if set to True. Will not use passive mode if set to False. Default value is False.
- RemoteFileName - the name of the file that will be created on the FTP server. If this file already exists, it will be overwritten so use carefully. The default file name is IPaddress.html.
- Template - the name of the file that contains the template that the remote file is based off. You can create your own custom templates for this file as long as the file resides in the application directory. The default setting is IPAddressFTP.template which is the the default template that comes with External IP.
Sample ExternalIP.ini File
Here is a sample ExternalIP.ini configuration file just so that you get an idea of what it can do.
[General]
CheckFrequency=60
LogFile=ExternalIP.log
LastIP=198.54.213.97
LastUpdated=2007/04/07 14:59:49
OnlyUpdateOnChange=False
LogToFile=True
RunAtLogOn=False
[Mail]
UseMail=False
SMTPServer=smtp.myisp.net
MailFrom=ExternalIP@myisp.com
MailTo=me@myisp.com
Subject=IP Address Updated
Template=IPAddressMail.template
[FTP]
UseFTP=True
Username=user
Password=password
FTPHost=ftp.myisp.com
Passive=False
RemoteFileName=IPaddress.html
Template=IPAddressFTP.template
This configuration file checks for IP address changes every hour (60 minutes) and updates the reporting methods each time, regardless of whether or not the IP address has changed or not. It logs events to the ExternalIP.log file and it last found an IP address of 198.54.213.97 on April 7, 2007 at 2:59:49 PM.
It does not update the user by e-mail but it does use FTP. It uses an account with username user and a password of password. It updates a file called IPaddress.html on the ftp.myisp.com ftp server but it does not use passive FTP for the update. The file that is updated is based on the IPAddressFTP.template template file.
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April 10th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Nice … I just had this happen to me last week (after having the same ip for about 7 months) and I couldn’t access my server from work when I needed to.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Good work, very handy! I wonder if you would consider sharing your code (sorry, don’t know if you have any policy against such)? This is a nice little piece of functionality, and I could see some other potential uses for it. Thanks.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Michael,
You are not the first person to ask about source code. I will be making an announcement about this in the near future. Please keep your eye on DCoT for further information.
Tim
April 10th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Thanks Tim,
I have been looking for a solution such as this for a bit. I sometimes have need to access files while on the road and I can’t wait to try this.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Sir, yes, Sir!
Glad to be of service, Sir! If you find it handy, feel free to use the Tip Jar, Sir!
P.S. If you haven’t guessed, I visited your blog!
Now if I only knew how to salute with an emoticon!
Tim
April 11th, 2007 at 5:08 am
I’ve used ZoneEdit and DynDNS to access my home network via registered domain names and free subdomains with great success over the years. No need to keep track of my dynamic IP address
April 25th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Great little app, very handy.
For me, though, it is ignoring the “UseMail=False” in the .ini file, and tries to contact “SMTPServer=smtp.myisp.com” anyway. FTP function works PERFECTLY.
Otherwise, thanks for a great utility, and blog!
May 6th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Good idea!
Just wanted to point out that “UseFTP=False” does not appear to bypass the FTP portion of the program - resulting in an error message (as expected since I have not changed the default FTP parameters in the configuration file.
May 6th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
It looks like there are a couple of bugs that I need to look at. Thanks, Fred and Dave. I’ll get on that as soon as I get some time.
Tim
February 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Hi Tim,
Do you, by chance, have something similar to use on a Linux platform?
Thanks!
Andy
April 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Hello\
I new to this and can not seem to get it working with gmail account does any one have a sample application
April 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Has a solution been found for the program not recognizing “False” for FTP and Mail settings? Hint hint nudge nudge…
December 8th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Hello
Can I use hotmail,and how to set smtp
pleas help