Simple workaround to this "lack of features" on home routers:
- Check the DHCP function on your router, to see how many IPs and starting IP address it will automatically issue out to connected clients. If it starts with x.x.x.100 and issues up to 50, the range is until x.x.x.149 then.
- If that's the case, u have from x.x.x.150 till x.x.x.254 to mess around with (assuming it's a Class C subnet that it's set to - typically 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x - then again, I've seen some routers default to 10.x.x.x Class A)
- With that, you can safely use say from .150 till .254 to manually assign to your computers/devices that need port mapping. Assign them in this manner:
IP Address: x.x.x.150
Netmask: 255.255.255.0 (typically)
Gateway: (router's IP - probably x.x.x.1)
DNS Server: (router's IP - probably x.x.x.1)
- Then for the computers/devices that you have manually assigned its IP, you can now add port forwarding to your heart's content.
- Anyway, as an example, most Linksys routers have a DHCP feature that works for range 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150 (if it's listed as 50 addresses). It's router IP is typically 192.168.1.1, so when assigning your computers as a manual static entry, setup the addressing on the computer as:
IP Address: 192.168.1.150
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
- For the next computer, use IP of 192.168.1.151 instead, while the other settings remain the same.
Hope that helps