Your public IP address is the unique address used to locate your business on the internet, and while you may (or may not!) notice that your IP (Internet protocol) address at home changes every so often, for business you’ll need this address to remain fixed, or static.

Being a business product, a fibre leased line will, as a rule, come with a static IP address provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so if you’re planning to move to a new fibre optic leased line provider you may be concerned that this could cause disruption.

Why do we need a static IP for business?

If you think of your public IP address as being similar to a postal address but for your internet router, you’ll soon understand why having it change frequently would cause problems – no one knows where to find you!

A static IP address is necessary for many business uses, such as:

• Remote working
• Hosting any kind of server (email, website, file, etc)
• VoIP calling
• Remote access to CCTV and Building Management Systems (BMS)

Will our IP address change when we switch ISP?

Yes. The fixed public IP address associated with your fibre leased line is in most cases provided by your internet service provider, which owns certain blocks of addresses. So, when you move to a new ISP your static public IP will change. Unlike a telephone number, you can’t “port” an IP address to a different provider.

In most cases the transition between providers is very simple and usually involves your IT team simply updating the Domain Name System (DNS) records. For example, changing the IP address of remoteaccess.mycompany.co.uk from IP 1.2.3.4 to IP 5.6.7.8

What do we need to do to minimise disruption when our IP changes?

Getting a new public IP address can create some complexity, but nothing that can’t be overcome as part of a planned migration project.

The good news is that, unlike a broadband migration – which involves the incumbent provider ceasing their connection so the new provider can start theirs – when you’re changing your fibre leased line internet service provider, you’ll be able to run the old line and your new line simultaneously for a while and control the date when you cutover provided you are happy to pay for dual running of the circuits. This means that with some planning ahead, you’ll have time to carefully manage the process of updating your IP address in your business applications to ensure there’s as little disruption to your services as possible.

Is it worth making the change to a new fibre provider?

If reluctance to change your IP address is putting you off moving to a new provider, consider your reasons for moving and whether the minor inconvenience of a planned IP address change outweighs the potential disruption that would be caused by an unexpected outage or long-term reliability problems or even continuing to pay too much for a slower service when you need more bandwidth.  Don’t let your business get held back by anxiety about change, especially when choosing the right provider means this change can be managed smoothly.

Bear in mind, too, that from a security and efficiency perspective, as your IT team identifies applications that access your network they have a good opportunity to review these and ensure when you change over that only those still needing network access are allowed it.

With Beaming as your chosen new provider, our technical team will be happy to advise on how to achieve the change with minimal disruption, having many years’ experience in facilitating these switchovers.

For more reading on how to change your internet service provider:

• Can I switch provider on a leased line?
• Is it easy to switch broadband provider?