[Alari]

If you're connecting directly to a cable modem or something the connection won't have a firewall unless the cable modem does.. It's hard to say exactly without knowing more about how you connect but if you don't have a router or firewall, then all the ports are available to the entire internet automatically. If you're connecting via another computer or system, then that computer may be acting as a router and/or firewall in which case you have to open port 2593.

No IP has a free service as well as a paid service. I've been using the free one for a while, the only real issue I have with it is that it doesn't detect that I'm running the client with regards to the 'unused' expiration.. That is to say I get an email every 90 days or so with a link I have to click to verify I'm still using the service. Everything else works fine, IP changes are detected and I can point a subdomain of my main site to the no-ip address.

DynDNS is another free dynamic DNS service, their page says they're free anyway, I haven't tried them myself. (I may just do so, it never hurts to have a backup...)

There are other free dynamic DNS services available, search Google for "free dynamic dns" and you'll get a huge list.

That just makes your server easier to connect to, people can always connect via IP, at least until it changes. =)

(Dynamic DNS basically points a subdomain name towards your current IP, you run a client on the server computer which detects IP changes and lets the dynamic DNS service know to point to a new IP address. If you have static IPs, your IP address will not change (...much, it still can change if your ISP allocates you a new IP. So a dynamic DNS service is still useful)

Once it's public you can advertise on ConnectUO (there's a specific shard advertisement forum for now, until ConnectUO is working again) plus plenty of "top ### UO server" sites you can list your shard on.