WAN ip retrival remotely

As suspicous as this may sound, I was wondering If anyone knew of a way
to retrieve the WAN ip of a router in the event that it gets reset. I
manage a client's Linux File-Sharing server from my home and I was
wondering if it's possible to have the Linux server query for the WAN ip
from the router or from some other source and email or upload the ip
info so I won't have to call the office to get the WAN ip everytime I
need to login via SSH and update the system for them. Damn dynamic
assigning! Any info would be appreciated.

-Jason
--
Registered Linux user #339721
Visit me @ http://home.centurytel.net/jlw-tech

Jason L. Woodruff wrote:
> As suspicous as this may sound, I was wondering If anyone knew of a way
> to retrieve the WAN ip of a router in the event that it gets reset. I
> manage a client's Linux File-Sharing server from my home and I was
> wondering if it's possible to have the Linux server query for the WAN ip
> from the router or from some other source and email or upload the ip
> info so I won't have to call the office to get the WAN ip everytime I
> need to login via SSH and update the system for them. Damn dynamic
> assigning! Any info would be appreciated.
>
> -Jason

dyndns.org

On Sat, 14 May 2005, Jason L. Woodruff <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
> As suspicous as this may sound, I was wondering If anyone knew of a way
> to retrieve the WAN ip of a router in the event that it gets reset. I
> manage a client's Linux File-Sharing server from my home and I was
> wondering if it's possible to have the Linux server query for the WAN ip
> from the router or from some other source and email or upload the ip
> info so I won't have to call the office to get the WAN ip everytime I
> need to login via SSH and update the system for them. Damn dynamic
> assigning! Any info would be appreciated.

What you want is dynamic DNS, which will maps a static hostname to a
dynamic IP. Do a web search for 'dns hosting'. I use no-ip.com.

When I wanted to do that I was using a Dlink DI-704, but its login was a
confusing mess of frames and javascript. So I hacked its firmware
(modified HTML to include variables) to display its WAN IP on its login
page where I could monitor it with a daemonized Perl LWP script.

I could have just run no-ip.com's dynamic DNS update client as a daemon
and have them grab my connecting internet IP periodically, but wanted to
updated it promptly when it changed, but not bother them if it didn't
(minimize internet traffic).

Now I simply use Linux on an old Celeron 300 as a pppoe/firewall/router,
so it runs the no-ip.com DNS update client from /etc/ppp/ip-up (which
automatically runs whenever pppoe gets an IP).

(E-Mail Removed) (David Efflandt) wrote:
>On Sat, 14 May 2005, Jason L. Woodruff <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>> As suspicous as this may sound, I was wondering If anyone knew of a way
>> to retrieve the WAN ip of a router in the event that it gets reset. I
>> manage a client's Linux File-Sharing server from my home and I was
>> wondering if it's possible to have the Linux server query for the WAN ip
>> from the router or from some other source and email or upload the ip
>> info so I won't have to call the office to get the WAN ip everytime I
>> need to login via SSH and update the system for them. Damn dynamic
>> assigning! Any info would be appreciated.
....
>Now I simply use Linux on an old Celeron 300 as a pppoe/firewall/router,
>so it runs the no-ip.com DNS update client from /etc/ppp/ip-up (which
>automatically runs whenever pppoe gets an IP).

Note that ip-up, or whatever might be available on the router
that is similar, could also just email the new IP address to the
OP...

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) (David Efflandt) wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 14 May 2005, Jason L. Woodruff <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>As suspicous as this may sound, I was wondering If anyone knew of a way
>>>to retrieve the WAN ip of a router in the event that it gets reset. I
>>>manage a client's Linux File-Sharing server from my home and I was
>>>wondering if it's possible to have the Linux server query for the WAN ip
>>>from the router or from some other source and email or upload the ip
>>>info so I won't have to call the office to get the WAN ip everytime I
>>>need to login via SSH and update the system for them. Damn dynamic
>>>assigning! Any info would be appreciated.
>
> ...
>
>>Now I simply use Linux on an old Celeron 300 as a pppoe/firewall/router,
>>so it runs the no-ip.com DNS update client from /etc/ppp/ip-up (which
>>automatically runs whenever pppoe gets an IP).
>
>
> Note that ip-up, or whatever might be available on the router
> that is similar, could also just email the new IP address to the
> OP...
>
Hey guys,

Thanks for all the great information. To give a little more details
about the setup, the clients that I'm working with have a Netopia DSL
modem sitting behind one of those "EL Cheapo" "Wal-Mart" jobs Linksys
N041 router with a 4 port switch. A little blue box the size of 4"X2.5"
.. They are running a "nice" DELL Dimesion with 2.8GHz HT system that had
WIndows XP Pro but talked them into putting Linux (Fedora Core 3)
because of some weired 3 to 5 minute connection to the office share on
the Windows XP setup. Now it only takes 3 to 5 seconds with Linux (but
that's another story). The point here is that the router function is not
done through Linux but through a hardware device. I was kinda of
thinking of a script that could actually use a text web browser and
connect to a site that can display your WAN ip and let perl strip the
text for any numbers, then auto FTP the info into a remote FTP server
and upload the file everyday by using a CRON job. My next question, how
do you write a script? LOL, just kidding, I'll give your suggestions a
go. Again, thanks for all of your help!

-Jason

--
Registered Linux user #339721
Visit me @ http://home.centurytel.net/jlw-tech

"Jason L. Woodruff" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Thanks for all the great information. To give a little more
>details about the setup, the clients that I'm working with have
>a Netopia DSL modem sitting behind one of those "EL Cheapo"
>"Wal-Mart" jobs Linksys N041 router with a 4 port switch. A
....
>device. I was kinda of thinking of a script that could actually
>use a text web browser and connect to a site that can display
>your WAN ip and let perl strip the text for any numbers, then
>auto FTP the info into a remote FTP server and upload the file
>everyday by using a CRON job. My next question, how do you write
>a script? LOL, just kidding, I'll give your suggestions a
>go. Again, thanks for all of your help!

If you have an Internet accessible web page that is writable by
the Linux box, a cron job that checks to see if the WAN IP of
the router has changed can write it to the web page.

Since the router's internals aren't accessible (are you sure of
that???), the only real trick is having the Linux box fetch
router's the IP. (If the router won't tell the Linux box what
its IP is, try a traceroute to the node the router connects to,
and the next to the last entry will be the router.) The cron
job can save the IP address to a data file, and then
periodically fetch it again and compare the current IP to the
file. If they are different, the file and the web site are
updated with a new IP.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)