broadband connection questions

[bazz]

OK, I have found a company (well, actually, they found us), which offers business broadband for 5gbp per month (for 12 months) with 12.1 mb connection speed and unlimited download and upload speeds.

Comes with a fixed IP address and secure pipe.

question:
what is the advantage of a secure pipe (when not used for payment transactions), and what is the advantage of the fixed IP address.

bazz

[oracleguy]

The fixed IP address can make your life easier if you are running servers (web, vpn, email, etc.) on your connection. Since you'd probably have domain names pointed at the IP address, if your IP changed, users wouldn't be able to connect until you went and updated your DNS information.

[bazz]

Ah ok. my servers are not run on this connection. instead this connection is just for accessing the web and the servers are in a data centre in UK.

any other fixed IP benefit or is it just an attempt at an incentive for me to value their offering more highly?

bazz

[noneforit]

Unless your running something that needs a fixed IP address then i dont see much of an advantage. Ive got a dynamic IP like most companies and I run 3 machines, an Xbox and PS3 and it all works great.

Im not sure about the secure pipe unless its like a secure VPN exit somewhere as this would hide your internet traffic from anyone including the ISP

[Apostropartheid]

If you want to tunnel into an office computer and control it virtually, a fixed IP certainly takes a lot of hassle out of it. It's also useful for things such as Wake on LAN. If you have no use for these things, there's no real utility to a fixed IP address. Also, if you get banned somewhere, there's no coming back...=P