"fixed" IP address or not??

I'm shopping around for broadband providers and noticed that a few offer fixed IP address for a small fee. What does this mean and is it worth the extra dough? Also what is "contention ratio" and what should I be looking for?
Thanks for any reply!

Paolo

If you want to be able to access your network/computer(s) from the Internet,
such as via Remote Desktop, it really helps to have a static IP rather than
a dynamic one. If you don't plan to do that, it doesn't really matter (also,
you can use Remote Desktop even with a dynamic IP - it just takes more
work).

Don't know what "contention ratio" means - got a context?


Paolo wrote:
> I'm shopping around for broadband providers and noticed that a few
> offer fixed IP address for a small fee. What does this mean and is it
> worth the extra dough? Also what is "contention ratio" and what
> should I be looking for? Thanks for any reply!
>
> Paolo

For an outline of contention ratios, see the following:

http://www.getonlinebroadband.com/faqs/faq02.html

HTH
>-----Original Message-----
>I'm shopping around for broadband providers and noticed
that a few offer fixed IP address for a small fee. What
does this mean and is it worth the extra dough? Also what
is "contention ratio" and what should I be looking for?
>Thanks for any reply!
>
>Paolo
>.
>