Get Real IP

Guides

Practical, no-nonsense guides to static public IPs, CGNAT, and self-hosting — how it all works and how to make your services reachable from anywhere.

How to get a static (public) IP address

Every realistic way to get a dedicated public IP — from your ISP, from a cloud VPS, by building your own tunnel, or with Get Real IP.

How to self-host behind CGNAT or a dynamic IP

Why CGNAT and dynamic IPs block self-hosting, and how to get a real, reachable static IP anyway.

How to check if you are behind CGNAT

A two-minute test to tell whether your ISP is sharing your public IP via carrier-grade NAT.

Expose your home server to the internet

Five ways to make a home server reachable from the internet — port forwarding, DDNS, tunnels, and a dedicated IP.

How to host a Minecraft server when port forwarding won't work

Behind CGNAT or stuck on router port forwarding? The options for making a home Minecraft server reachable by friends, and their tradeoffs.

Get Real IP vs Tailscale vs Cloudflare Tunnel

When you need a real public IP instead of a mesh VPN or an HTTP-only tunnel.

Get Real IP vs a Dedicated-IP VPN

Get Real IP gives you the same dedicated, non-shared outbound IP a dedicated-IP VPN does — and, being a real routed IP, it also lets you host: any port, reverse DNS, route to your whole network.

Dynamic DNS vs a static IP

Dynamic DNS tracks your ISP's changing IP with a hostname — free and fine for hobby web hosting, but useless behind CGNAT and fragile for email, reverse DNS, and allowlists. When a fixed IP is the real fix.

Self-hosting a static IP on a VPS vs a routed IP service

Renting a VPS and building your own WireGuard tunnel works — but the traffic-forwarding and routing is the hard part. An honest comparison of DIY versus a managed routed IP.

Static IP over Starlink (and LTE / 5G)

Starlink and mobile connections use CGNAT and dynamic IPs. Here is how to get a static, reachable IP over them.

Hosting your own email server from home

Why residential IPs break email, and how a clean static IP with reverse DNS makes self-hosted mail deliverable.