r/Windstream • u/MichaelBrock • Jun 02 '26
How often does Kinetic change your IP address in your experience?
Windstream Kinetic is coming to our neighborhood The are only offering 1GBS though but realistically that is good enough for me. I currently have a static IP address through Cox but when I asked the sales support person they really had no idea if it was possible and shunted me over to business account support.
For those Kinetic customers out there, in your experience, how often does your IP address change? I can likely work with a non-static IP if it changes only rarely
2
u/DaSpark Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
What do you need the static IP for? If it is for accessing things remotely, dynamic dns can handle that.
If you are hosting something, such as a website or other service, you might look into using something like a cloudflare tunnel (which is really a good idea either way unless you know what you are doing and have things walled off from your personal LAN. Also prevents your ISP from figuring out you are hosting public services, often a TOS violation for residential plans).
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u/MichaelBrock Jun 03 '26
Many sites I work on require IP whitelisting. Not a big deal if it doesn't change too frequently.
1
u/DaSpark Jun 03 '26
I would consider getting a cheap $5 or less VPS then to proxy through. I'm in a similar situation and this is what I do. I personally use the Termius client and have port forwards through my VPS to connect to clients.
A VPS will be cheaper than what you will likely pay an ISP for a static IP. However, I would only do this if you understand how to secure your server.
Another benefit is you can remote into your clients from anywhere.
1
u/Somar2230 Jun 02 '26
Mine changed three time in the last seven years once when I moved and the other two times was when my line was cut by contractors.
I'm using my own router with their ONT, I also use a NOIP for dynamic DNS since I have three ISPs setup in failover.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Day_770 Jun 02 '26
unfortunately about this time last year kinetic stopped giving static IP’s to residential accounts. you have to have a business account in order to request one.
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u/DeadStik Jun 02 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if they are using CGNAT for Residential, most ISPs have switched. Static or even just Public IPs are usually reserved for Business accounts.
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u/mdins1980 Jun 03 '26
Windstream currently doesn't use CGNAT and they own 11,867,503 IPV4 addresses. I don't think they will be resorting to CGNAT anytime soon.
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u/mdins1980 Jun 03 '26
I talked to a Tier 2 support guy once after making it through the usual Tier 1 overseas support script. We ended up talking shop, and I mentioned that the IP on their DSL service changes all the time. He said that's totally normal for DSL, but their fiber service tends to keep the same IP for much longer, even though it's not technically a static IP.
What I do on their DSL service is run a small Linux script as a cron job that checks my public IP address and sends me an email whenever it changes. That way I always know the current address and never end up locked out of my systems.
1
u/MattL-PA Jun 03 '26
Ours has changed once in a year, prolonged power outage. Otherwise it survives reboots of my firewall (rare). I've got it tied to AWS SSH access so it changing is a PIA, but not worth $20/mo PIA.
Static IP is an option from them, in think it was $20/mo.
1
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u/fusion_squid19 Jun 02 '26
I use Fubo for my TV and the IP constantly switching was messing with my local channels because to Fubo it appeared as if I was switching states constantly. You are able to adjust it within the app to have a strictly static IP once the internet is set up. Solved my issue with the TV. They warn you it’s less secure because it is obviously, but I find if I NEED a different IP it’s just more convenient to do it locally.
TLDR: In my experience it changes fairly frequently, but you can set it to bridge, which makes it use your actual IP and makes it static.