<snip analogy about renting a house> <snip part about dhcp for dialup which imho is not relevant>
Very clever, indeed, in particular when someone tries to do stuff that is security-aware.
Like what? Almost anything is possible from behind a dynamic IP address.
I want to connect, from home, to a server behind my company's firewall. The firewall only allows connections based on source ip address. Our firewall admin cannot be persuaded to open it up for the whole /19 or whatever my isp uses for its dhcp pool.
If you want to run services then get a commercial account from your provider, or find a provider that will allocate you static IP space.
This is the problem that caused me to start this discussion: in my area there is no broadband (cable/dsl) provider offering static ip for a reasonable price. If I get a 'commercial' account I need to pay 4(!) times as much as I would for a 'noncommercial' account *per month*; I do not consider this reasonable, even if it does include a bunch of other things I do not want (router etc.). So by posting here, I hoped to find some arguments to use in convincing the ISPs in my area. Regulation from RIPE [NCC] would have been nice... alas. Suggestions are still welcome :) Have a nice weekend, Herbert