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File Permissions
External IP must have the ability to read, create, delete and edit certain files. If External IP is run from media that does not allow these abilities, it will generate errors. Please make certain that the following files have, at minimum, the corresponding permissions:
| File or Folder | Minimum Permissions |
|---|---|
| ExternalIP.ini | read, write*, change |
| ExternalIP.exe | read, execute |
| ExternalIP.log | read, write*, change |
| IPAddressFTP.template | read, write* |
| IPAddressMail.template | read, write* |
| Temporary Folder | read, write, change |
* These permission are only required when running External IP for the first time and these files do not exist in the application folder.
The easiest way to avoid these problem is to External IP from a USB drive formatted with the FAT32 file system or make sure that you have full control permissions of the folder that External IP is installed in. Also, make sure that you have appropriate permissions on the Temporary Folder.
In general, folder permissions will not cause issues for you if you are running External IP from a system that you own at home. You are probably running this system as a Local Administrator and thus have full control permission to the entire system.
Creating Templates
There are two different templates that are used by External IP, one for the FTP function (html file) and one for the e-mail function (text file).
Each template is the basis for the service that is supports and provides a framework for the message that is delivered to the user. Within each template, there are some variables that can be used to provide dynamic feedback to the user. Each variable in the template will be replaced by unique information based on the time that External IP was run. Here is a list of the variables that are available and the type of information that they represent:
| Variable | Description of Information |
|---|---|
| %IPAddress% | The external IP address that was discovered. It is recommended that this variable be used in all templates. If it is not used, the IP address will not be given to the user. Example information returned: 204.123.21.3 |
| %UpdatedDate% | The date and time that External IP was last successfully run if OnlyUpdateOnChange = False or the date and time that External IP detected an IP change if OnlyUpdateOnChange = True. Example information returned: 2007/04/24 14:59:49 |
| %NextUpdate% | The date and time that the IP address will be checked. This variable should only be used when OnlyUpdateOnChange = False. Example information returned: 2007/04/24 14:59:49 |
The FTP template supports full HTML code while the e-mail template is limited to ASCII text.
To get a better idea of how to create a template, open the IPAddressFTP.template file in an HTML editor and the IPAddressFTP.template file in a text editor to get an idea of how these files work.
You can also create different template files and change the Template options in each of the FTP and Mail sections of the ExternalIP.ini file.
Best Practices
There are a lot of different ways to configure External IP. But, some work better than others. Here are a few tips that I have come up with when setting up External IP.
Determining Update Frequency
How often do you really need to check your IP address? This really depend on the DHCP lease time that your ISP has set up. I would suggest setting your CheckFrequency to about half of your DHCP lease time. You can determine your DHCP lease time by either contacting your Internet provider or checking on your router.
OnlyUpdateOnChange - Yes or No
In general, I suggest that if you are going to be updating by e-mail, set OnlyUpdateOnChange to True, otherwise you will receive and e-mail every single time it checks. This means that if your CheckFrequency is set to 60, you will be receiving 24 e-mails a day telling you that you have the exact same IP address.
If you are going to be using FTP for the updates, then I typically set OnlyUpdateOnChange to False. This way, you will be able to check at your leisure for your IP address plus you will also know whether or not External IP is working because you can check when it was last updates and when it is expected to be updated again. (If External IP is working, the last updated time and date should be in the past and the next update should be in the future.)
Security
There are a couple of things that you need to take into consideration regarding security:
- Your FTP username and password are stored in clear text. Anyone who can access this file will have access to this information. If you are running External IP, make sure that you lock the workstation that it is running on and only enable yourself to read and write to ExternalIP.ini.
- Anyone who accesses the HTML file that you upload via FTP will know your home IP address. This is typically not a big deal because this information is transmitted quite regularly. But, I would suggest using a file name that is not linked to, requires user authentication to access, and is not indexable by web spiders.
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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…