Do you have a dynamic IP address assigned to your computer by your ISP? Most of us do. You could pay for a static IP, but then most of us are too cheap for that. You could use a free online service to do that, but then the next time your router reboots, or your ISP refreshes your IP, you get a new one. What to do.

Recently I ran into a situation were I needed to know that external IP of my internal server, but wasn't always going to actually be were my server was. So I decided to write a program to monitor the IP and notify me via email if it changed.

Try out the beta version of MyIP. It still has a way to go, but it does what I need for now.

System Requirements

• Windows 2003 or XP (I'll test on Vista when I get a free moment)
• .Net 2.0 or greater

Quick and dirty instructions

1. Download (here) and install (If this is an update, make sure you copy your myip.exe.config file because it will get overwritten. I'll be writing an update tool for this too, some day).
2. Go to were you installed MyIP and open the myip.exe.config file
3. Edit the appSettings section:
• servers: A comma delimited list of servers used to gather the IP. (try http://www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp). It is important that whatever service you use, it only shows the IP address and nothing else on the page.
• smtp_server: Your outgoing smtp server.
• emails: A comma delimited list of email address you want to receive the notifications.
• smtp_from: Who is sending the email. Just make something up if you want. It is there to help you identify who is sending the email.
• computer_name: The name identifying this computer. DO NOT use your local IP or real network name. This is simply there in case you are doing this from multiple computers and need to be able to identify who the IP address belongs to.
• smtp_username: A username for the smtp server. Leave blank if you don't need one.
• smtp_password: A password for the smtp server. Leave blank if you don't need one.
4. Save the file and reboot your computer

Problems

If you don't receive any notifications check the event log viewer (control panel) to see if you can figure out what is going on. If you need to edit the file again just make sure you restart the service so that MyIP picks up the changes.

TODO

• Write a configuration program to assist editing the conf file.
• Release source (I want to clean it up a bit).
• Write manual.

License

Currently I am copyrighting the program, but it is free to use anyway you want, just don't sell it. By downloading the program you take your fate into your own hands. In essence, you are agreeing that if the program hoses your system (or your bosses, or anyone's), causes the stock market to crash, kills your goldfish, etc., you will not hold me responsible.

Change log

• July 31, 2008: Version 0.2.0.
  • Added ability to specify username/password for smtp server.
• July 7, 2008: Version 0.1.0. Uploaded MyIP