Home packages

The most fundamental part of home packages is that you almost always have a dynamic IP address. The increasing implementation of IPv6 is meant to eliminate this problem by assigning an IPv6 address to all your devices, accessible by anyone that knows it, from anywhere in the world. Some ISPs will allow you to upgrade to a static IP, but there can still be some limitations. The problem with having a dynamic IP is that it may change without notice. So, if you try to access your network from the Internet using an IP one day, it will certainly stop working after a while. This lease time varies from ISP to ISP because some are as short as a few hours, and others can last for years. If you don't know your current Internet IP address while you are in a remote place, finding out what it is can be quite inconvenient.

One of the best known solutions is to use a dynamic DNS service. Many Internet routers will have some kind of dynamic DNS setting available, even the one provided by your ISP. A dynamic DNS client is a program that automatically updates the DNS records of a public domain name. There are a handful of free dynamic DNS services.

Business packages

Business packages will almost always include a static IP address or an option to purchase one. This really gets rid a lot of work for workarounds that need to be applied with home packages. You can use the IP address provided to you, but even on the rarest occasion, it may be changed to another IP; however, you will be warned about this in advance.

The other benefits are that ISPs will allow you to change the reverse DNS lookup of your IP, a service that is unavailable with home packages. This service is very important if you plan on running a small mail server. This is one of the prerequisites that needs to be configured so that other mail domains know who you are. The only way to solve this problem at home is to use a paid for mail exchange to send and receive e-mails using custom domain names.

Many business packages offer unlimited and unshaped traffic. ISPs might deliberately throttle certain ports on home broadband connections to make them slower and less reliable. Some ISPs go to extreme measures and block these ports on home packages; for example, ports 25, 80, 110, and 443 are used for mail and web servers.

If you plan on using the Raspberry Pi for some home experiments, private use, or educational purposes, then all you need to do is spend a little extra time configuring everything correctly. Be aware, though, that hosting production services on a home broadband may be against the terms and conditions of your contract. If you anticipate high usage, it is a much better option to purchase a business package.