[rescue] Static IP! Now what?

[Mouse]

> [...]

> What else is a static IP good for?

Basically, anything a dynamic IP is good for, plus assorted things
where you want to be reachable at a fixed IP.  Mostly, in practice,
this means you can run your own just-about-anything: DNS, mail, web,
VPN, FTP, what-have-you.  (I'm assuming there aren't still
provider-imposed restrictions like "can't run servers" or "no outgoing
TCP to port 25".)

If you're stuck with only one IP, there are additional headaches, but
you said you'd have a /29, so those shouldn't be issues.  Depending on
how much you care about such things, you might want to bug them about
IPv6, too.

> [...], and I'm curious about how well VOIP will work for our fax
> line.

Based on my tests, either really well (if it gets converted to T.38
before getting to you) or really crappy (if it is still trying to use
POTS fax codecs).  The codecs originally used for fax were designed to
deal with the sorts of errors POTS introduces.  SIP introduces errors
too, but they tend to be completely different errors (typically
dropouts rather than corruption, roughly speaking), so different coding
schemes are called for.  POTS fax works fine provided you have
absolutely zero data loss, but even a single missed data packet plays
merry hell with designed-for-POTS fax codecs.

...that's assuming your VOI is SIP.  If not, I'm not really competent
to comment, except that similar remarks _probably_ apply.

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