Sierra Raven EDGE - Manual (Page 57)

IP Manager
Rev 3.0B Feb.08 53
• Dynamic IP addresses are granted only when your Raven
is connected and can change each time the modem recon‐
nects to the network.
• Static IP addresses are granted the same address every
time your Raven is connected and are not in use when
your modem is not connected.
Since many cellular providers, like wire‐based ISPs, do not
offer static IP addresses or static address accounts cost a
premium vs. dynamic accounts, Sierra Wireless AirLink
Solutions developed IP Manager to work with a Dynamic DNS
server to receive notification from Sierra Wireless AirLink
modems to translate the modem’s dynamic IP address to a
fully qualified domain name. Thus, you can contact your
Raven directly from the Internet using a domain name.
Understanding Domain Names
A domain name is a name of a server or device on the Internet
which is associated with an IP address. Similar to how the
street address of your house is one way to contact you and
your phone number is another, both the IP address and the
domain name can be used to contact a server or device on the
Internet. While contacting you at your house address or with
your phone number employ different methods, using a
domain name instead of the IP address actually uses the same
method, just a word based name is commonly easier to
remember for most people than a string of numbers.
Understanding the parts of a domain name can help to under‐
stand how IP Manager works and what you need to be able to
configure the modem. A fully qualified domain name (FQDN)
generally has several parts.
• Top Level Domain (TLD): The TLD is the ending suffix for
a domain name (.com, .net, .org, etc.)
• Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD): This suffix is
often used after the TLD for most countries except the US
(.ca, .uk, .au, etc.)
• Domain name: This is the name registered with ICANN
(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
or the registry for a the country of the ccTLD (i.e. if a
domain is part of the .ca TLD, it would be registered with
the Canadian domain registry). It is necessary to have a
name registered before it can be used.
• Sub‐domain or server name: A domain name can have
many sub‐domain or server names associated with it. Sub‐
domains need to be registered with the domain, but do not