Gogarty wrote:

> In article <MPG.20dfdb005426d95298a44f@news.readfreenews.net> , me@privacy.net
> says...
>>
>>
>>Old Fart wrote
>>
>>> I'm an old fart late to moving to DSL from dialup, where I've been fond of
>>> my dynamic IP for various reasons.
>>>
>>> What's the best way with DSL to approximate the daily or hourly changing
>>> Internet address of a legacy dynamic IP?
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Go back to dialup, with the others who have *various reasons* to worry
>>about their IP.
>>
> Helpful. Really, really helpful.

Actually it is. Considerably more helpful than your own prepubescent
sarcasm. Probably the best advice anyone could give someone who's for
whatever reasons worried about not having a "random enough" IP address in
fact, as it's the only way to assure any sort of chances for a regular,
predictable change of IP.

Here's another tidbit of information that makes it even more useful...

Many, or possibly most ISP's, offer free dialup access as a "backup" to
your broadband or for use while on the road. They'll generally have a
one-time automated sign up procedure, and provide you with a list of
access numbers for your area. There's nothing at all to prevent someone
from using both, the dialup reserved for those "various reasons" eluded to
above.

As to the reasons themselves I can think of several. File sharing
applications hand out your IP address, and even after they're closed
there's a constant stream of traffic coming in, sometimes for days or even
weeks, for instance.

Accessing certain resources from large IP blocks that might normally have
large numbers of people accessing that resource might be another. Such as
looking up public records at your local court house, without tying that
activity to any "long term" IP address.