Is a static IP required for port forwarding?

[bovinda]

According to portforward.com, a static IP is required for successful port forwarding. Is that always true?

I'm trying to troubleshoot why I can't connect with a friend for some online gaming.

I forwarded the port on my router and it worked once, then a couple hours later when we tried again, it wouldn't work.

So I'm thinking maybe it's because I have a dynamic IP, versus a static IP? Is there any risk with having a static versus a dynamic IP?

Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[Goosemaster]

no.

Technically, you have a dynamic IP, but that just means that someserver somewhere automatically and dynamically assigns you an IP address for a legth of time. Usually it is about 24 hours, but usually a LOT longer. I've spoken to comcast on unrelated issues, and they wouldn't give me many details except to say that they like binding IPs to MAC address for quite some time...A static IP is an IP that is manually given to you, and is basically leased out to you. The internet is made up of many hosts, and a static IP means that, as long as you pay your bill ANyone, anywhere, can reach you at the same IP. This is extremely important with servers on the internet, just as it is on a LAN.

Anyways...to help you with your problem....

Port fowarding refers to letting something IN to your network. From what I have read, I gather that THEY are hosting the game and not YOU. If I am wrong feel free to correct me.
One of the reasons that port fowarding might not be working is that the one hosting the game is using a dynamic IP internally, on their LAN. When port fowarding, common sense tells you that need to use a static IP address so the computer will always be at the same IP address and your routers configuration will always mirror the computers IP. Odds are in messing around, one of you unplugged or reset soemthing, and now you have a different internal IP.

Simply set the IP of the box that is hosting the game to a static ip address, port foward the traffic to that ip, and everything should work

 

[blemoine]

how bout a short answer. when you forwarded the port on your router if you said to forward a certain port from a certain ip address to a internal address then no it won't work because your address has changed. you need to tell it forward certain port from any ip address to a certain internal ip address and it should work. that is about it.

 

[JackMDS]

It depends on the Router's way to handle it.

To make absulotly sure use Static.

If the Router can reserve IP within the DHCP range it is good too.

If the Router can reserve an IP regardless of other settings according to MAC address it will work as well.

:sun:

 

[bovinda]

OK, let me see if I understand what you guys are saying. So in a system like mine (a router hooking up two computers to a Verizon DSL modem), there's an "external" IP address and an "internal" (within my LAN) IP address. And either one of these can be static or dynamic.

So the problem in my case might be that one or both of these is dynamic?

So the external IP is the one that gets listed when you go to a site like www.findmyip.com, yeah? I think it is set to dynamic IP, but it hasn't changed (according to www.findmyip.com) in a couple days much like Goosemaster described, so that would be unlikely to be the problem, wouldn't it? (Nevertheless, maybe I should set it to static just in case, 'cuz my memory isn't always the best.)

Now...how can I tell whether the internal IP is static or dynamic? As far as I know, the router refers to this computer as 192.168.0.2 (with the router itself being 192.168.0.1). I've never seen that change. Would that be the internal IP address, and would that mean it's static?

JackMDS, what does it mean for a router to reserve an IP in the DHCP range? Or to reserve a setting according to MAC address? I think you lost me.

Edit: is there any risk using a static versus a dynamic external or internal IP address?

 

[Goosemaster]

You are getting things confused. Yes you have both an internal and external IP for the router. By dynamic IP most people are usually referring to your external IP since it is how the whole world finds you. Internally, you have the ability to do whatever you want because it is walled off from the internet. That said, I was referring to your internal IP address, the one your pc is picking up from the router. Whoever is hosting the game mset set their PC up with an internal static IP. Basically, instead of relying on the router to give them and IP address, you jsut input the information in yourself.



http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm


follow the directions on there.....

 

[Madwand1]

So your external IP hasn't changed. An your internal IP hasn't changed. Yet you think this is a static vs. dynamic IP issue. This doesn't add up. Check your facts and learn the basics of static vs. dynamic addresses before mucking around and changing things without understanding what's going on.

BTW, DDNS can help alleviate external dynamic IP's, should that be an issue.

 

[blemoine]

reserving an address in a dhcp range is like this:
on a network your dhcp server may have a range like 192.168.1.20 --> 192.168.1.100 if you wanted to give addresses
192.168.1.30 --> 192.168.1.35 to lets say some new network printers then you would reserve the addresses so your dhcp server would not hand them out to anything except those certain machines.

 

[bovinda]

I think the dynamic/static IP was the issue. When I checked again to the IP address I'd originally given my buddy, it was different afterall, it just sounded the same. Since I gave him the new IP we've been able to connect two out of three times. We'll try again tomorrow and see if it keeps working.

Thanks for the help you guys. I will go ahead and look into setting up the static IP per Goosemaster's link. (And I'll google DDNS when I get a chance to see what that is and why it would help.)

So...I guess my only remaining question for the time-being is--is there a significant security risk to using a static versus a dynamic IP, and/or using port forwarding? (One place I saw described port forwarding as "punching a hole" in your firewall.)

 

[JackMDS]

The address that you give your Friend is the External IP; you can not set the External IP to static since it is depending on you account and the ISP.

You can use special free service to establish a way to be connected to your system through the Internet. See here option 3, http://www.ezlan.net/myip.html

Opening a Port through the Firewall for a running application (The Game in your case) is a risk. However if you are Not running a Banking Service on your computer it is Not such a big risk, anyway you do not have another choice if a port is needed and it is blocked it would not work.

:sun:

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: bovinda
(And I'll google DDNS when I get a chance to see what that is and why it would help.)

DDNS will let you use a domain name instead of an IP to address your network from the outside. There are a few which are free. Some of course will have strings attached.

Some routers support some DDSN providers, and will update the DDNS automatically when your ISP changes your IP. Some routers provide a fixed list of DDNS providers for doing this, so you might want to limit your research to those providers supported by your router.

You can always use a software service for doing this instead. Some DDSN providers are apparently irritated by various routers and would prefer that you use the software. DDSN providers don't like you refreshing the IP address too often (when it hasn't changed or risked timing out), so if you set this up, set it up for the time period recommended by the DDNS provider, and otherwise let the tool update the DDNS only when the IP has changed.

 

[imported_bum]

To me it sounds like you guys are making this too complicated for him. You have an (external) dynamic IP address that you give to your friend to connect. This will change once in awhile, so you'll have to check your IP and give him the new one as necesary. Since it sounds like it's just the two of you that want to play so that's not a problem. If your looking into running a public server for multiple clients, then it IS more complicated.

On the LAN side, you need to forward ports on your router. You said your computer had the internal IP on 192.168.0.102. Once the right ports are forwarded to the IP things should work out. However, that IP address can also change, but it is easily made "static" by following a link above ( http://portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm ). Once you make the internal IP static, all you have to do is give your friend an updated external address to connect to and you're good to go.