IF YOU want to prolong the life of an old PC, the good news is that it can be converted into a personal web server, file server or game server.

But doing so creates a new problem: How would other users (or even you) find your PC over the Internet?

Of course, you can easily contact all your users and give out the IP (Internet Protocol) address of your PC.

When you connect to the Internet, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) assigns a temporary IP address to your PC, which looks something like 219.95.45.33.

But if you accidentally or intentionally disconnect, and later reconnect, the IP address of your PC will change.

That means other users can no longer access your website or game server because it now has a different IP address.

To avoid this problem, you can use dynamic DNS (Domain Name System), or DDNS services.

These services allow you to assign a domain name to your PC, such as ahbeng.servegame.com, much like real websites.

Using dynamic DNS, you can maintain a website or a game server and not have to worry about updating users when the IP address changes.

Free DDNS services are available from various DNS hosting companies ( www.no-pi.com www.dyndns.com http://freedns.afraid.org/ ).

Typically, all you need to do is sign up for an account, pick from a list of domain names, download and run a DDNS program, and your PC now has a "real" Internet address.

The DNS company retains the current addresses in a database, while the provided DDNS program updates the service whenever the PC's IP address has changed.

Your users only need to know the domain name for your PC, which will remain constant.

A few broadband routers also have built-in support for DDNS, so users don't even need to download any software.