> But as software products grow more complex and the actual value more vague
most popular software tend to decrease in quality with time... engineers are just looking for something to do and add stuff that can sometime be of negative value
My dynamic IP address with Comcast is pretty much static but I guess it is not a guarantee... I can get it to change by spoofing my router MAC address though.
I use a VPN + static IP or DDNS to get access to my home cloud/server (both the VPN and DDNS can be setup on my router). Also, there are free DDNS providers.
If you want to see where Google search results really point to, you can right click it and then hover over it to get the real destination... it's been like this for 15+ years (google changes the destination on-click).