Port Forwarding

[[DRuG]KillFrenzy]

OK, I'll have to set up port forwarding - but this isn't my usual port forwarding. I'm confronted with a new problem.

OK, basically, my network is 3 wired computers with static local IP's and 2 laptops with dynamic IP's. I need to port forward to one of the laptops.

The only way would be to set the laptop to a static IP, but the IP needs to be changed to dynamic every time I use another network. Is it possible to setup a static IP for my Laptop on my specifically for my wireless network only?

I wish I could port forward to a MAC address

[[DRuG]NikT]

One of the functions of a router, or more specifically, a DHCP server, other than dealing out dynamic IPs to anything on the network that sends out a request, is to store reservations of IPs, which it associates with a MAC address.

Dig around in the LAN setup section of the web management interface for your router. In there you should see a section near or within DHCP server or LAN setup, referring to IP or DHCP reservations... one other way it's often laid out is a table listing what IP's are in use by what mac addresses, with a tick box alongside each to "reserve" or something similar. Tick this save and apply, then power cycle the pc - not reboot, power cycle. Some routers need rebooting ater new ports are added, some don't - it's worth knowing which yours does, and if it loses it's settings on power cycle like the netcomms do - if that's the case, make sure you save ya settings to a file for later.

Once reserved, each time the machine set on DHCP auto requests an IP, it will receive the same one. Then you should have no issues port forwarding on the next power down/powerup of the machine (this triggers it to start broadcasting to the DHCP server).

[[DRuG]KillFrenzy]

I dug around my router - yes there are lists of DHCP things that link the Hostname, MAC Address, and IP Addresses, and Expiry time. The problem is that there is no reserve, just statics of when it will expire or if it had expired.

But I managed to make 1 workaround. I set the leased time for DHCP to 8640 hours which is about 1 year (now I'd probably reset the router within that time). Now it always stays the same unless I reset the router though. The DHCP is also set up to not use the first 4 IP's in the subnet, which are reserved for static IP addresses

[[DRuG]NikT]

Yes, expiry is another way reservations can be expressed.

It would be wiser to have your router reserving the 4 static machines too, then changing their settings to DHCP, this speeds up the routing a bit, since the router knows where everything is, and allows you to have the others as static in their correct manner, too.. this is how printers in big companies etc. keep their IPs... the reservation is the first thing that is done when the printer arrives, before it is connected to the network.