I didn't know the locator service worked like that

[tomatodave]

My placeshifter on my laptop, recently started failing to connect to my server over the internet. The startup screen indicated that the locator service had found the server, however the connection attempt failed.

I have used this laptop very successfully for at least a year for placeshifting, when I travel for work - and I have changed nothing. When I investigated further I noticed that the locator ID indicated on the server was different than the one on my laptop and different that the one I had written down and emailed to myself just in case I needed it on the road.

Of course I changed the locator ID and sure enough placeshifter connected successfully. I also discovered that my ISP had changed my IP address. I always thought that the locator service was supposed to find the server even if the IP address had changed. So why did the locator ID change?? Does it change when the IP address changes?

Since this has happened I have started using dyndns, but I was just wondering if this is how it is supposed to work or have I missed something?