I'm trying to forward ports for Starcraft, which I know how to do. I got it to work all perfect once by luck. Problem is, my IP is dynamic, so I have to randomly guess and reboot the router multiple times to get the right IP. I also know how to set it to be static, which I did. Problem is, once I set it to static, I can't load any pages on the internet, even though it says I'm connected to the internet. Why?
Because of the way your router works. A router assigns a number to each of your devices. That's your IP address, and that's why every time you turn it off, the router turns "off" it's "number" that's set for you. When you turn a device on, it will grab the next available port. Therefore, you're going to have to set up your router and computer setup properly...there's no way to do that without knowing your router system, but I'm sure you can try to figure some of it out. Might I recommend forwarding your ports on the router for all ports instead of just one? Also, how many devices do you use (how many plugs are in the ethernet, or wireless connected)? If it's not too high (as in 10 or lower), you could just forward the ports for all the possible ports. The reason you're not getting internet is simple: your router and computer aren't connecting properly to each other. You could say they're not told where to find the other, if you want to say that.
Ok, I kinda zoned out in the middle of that short paragraph, right now i have the ports forwarded for blahblahblah.blah.0.101 it has the chance of doing blahblahblah.blah.0.100, 101, or 103 if i forwarded it for all 3 would that work? that's what I got out of your paragraph.
Yes, you could say that. I'll try to explain this in fairly simple terms, just for edumacational sake. Think of a router in a way that it's got to give everything that's connected to it an IP address. The IP address is pretty simple...it's just the last 3 numbers that matter in a LAN generally. The IP address is how the router will "talk" to the device. So, you've got nothing connected to the router now. Assuming it's set to start on .100, there will be no IPs. Connect one device, and it will be .100. Connect another and it will be .101, and so on and on. Lets say you turn off your computer and turn on an Xbox or something. The Xbox might be .101 now, and when you turn the computer on it could be .102. This is the reason for "dynamic IPs". Now, a static IP tells the computer to hold it's IP on a certain point. However, if you haven't told the router this, it's not sure what's happening. It tries to give your computer the next number, but it refuses it. It gets even worse if that IP is already used, and now it's being told there are two devices connected with the same...connection. This will result in you're technically having internet, but it won't be able to go to your device. Hope that made sense. I use a static IP on my Xbox, and it's not too tough but you'll have to tell your router about the IP so that it will all work. Set your IP to dynamic or automatic, and type in 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or home, one of those are usually your router setup page. There, it depends on the router software.
Okay I will try explain what Insane was saying to you. You are trying to port-forward, let's say ports 21909 - 21910 on your laptop. Your laptop has connected to your router and assigned a local IP address for you. Lets say this is 192.168.1.2 . That would mean you had something else connected to your router when you first connected to your router. Hence the 2 at the end of the local IP. Your router can normally have about 6 of those local IP's. 192.168.1.1-6 Because your router dynamically assigns these local IP addresses for you, when you port-forward for your laptop it will work, until you disconnect and you get assigned a new local IP address from your router. What insane was suggesting you do was port-forward for each of those local IP addresses. So for eg, you went onto your port-forward settings and entered the following if you wanted to port-foward those ports I stated in the first paragraph. 192.168.1.1 21909-21910 TCP/UCP 192.168.1.2 21909-21910 TCP/UCP 192.168.1.3 21909-21910 TCP/UCP 192.168.1.4 21909-21910 TCP/UCP 192.168.1.5 21909-21910 TCP/UCP 192.168.1.6 21909-21910 TCP/UCP So that is what you would enter if you could have 6 devices connected to your router and you wanted those ports forwarded. If you need any more help just reply back EDIT: Depending on your router the local IP's may be 192.168.0.1-6. If you go to your settings through 192.168.1.1 like most routers do then disregard this, if you connect with the 0 instead then just simply change the 1 to a 0 in my guide