Everytime you log onto the Internet through an ISP, you get a different IP address, right? (Even if you have a cable modem and keep the same IP address for an extended period, this still may be relevant to you.)

What if you have a Web server and a Web site on the machine that you use an ISP to connect with? Nobody could ever find your Web site unless they knew the current IP address. (Even you couldn't even find from a remote machine.) This is where a service like TSX or DHS comes in.

TSX will let you assign yourself a hostname in their domain, tsx.org. All you need to do is enter your IP address into a form on their Web site. That is what this gadget is all about. Then, whenever you enter yourhostname.tsx.org into a browser, it redirects to your actual machine sitting at the end of its ISP connection. The TSX service has the limitation of only working with HTTP requests -- or Web sites.

DHS goes even further. They actually redirect all packets from their domain to the IP address that you've entered into their database. This means you can name your machine, put it on the DHS domain and run a Web server, ftp service, telnet, the works.

And it's nearly instantaneous. Once you've entered your IP into the form on either service's site, you're there.