Connection timeouts with static IP

[elevator_100]

Hi, I'm having no luck searching for this. Yesterday I successfully set up a static IP on my Zyxel router, port forwarding and, and got a Starbound server running on my windows 10 pc. Was able to use the internet on all network devices and connect to my server via a laptop. I shutdown all the computers and went to bed. In the morning I get network connection timeout errors and although the modem looks like it's connected and says it's connected none of my devices have internet. I suspect DHCP lease renewal is somehow the culprit but I have no solid ideas and google isn't helping. Please help!

 

[anotherdrew]

The static IP address you used on the router ... was that a public IP address you put on the WAN port? If so, are you paying for a static IP address? If not, then it's possible that your ISP assigned IP address changed and now you and someone else are trying to use the same IP address which would cause problems.

 

[elevator_100]

You'll have to bear with me, this is all new to me. This is a home system. I think I just have a modem maybe, it's a zyxel pk5001z. I am using the IP inherent to it as the gateway, the DNS are from century link, my isp if that matters. Do I need to get a router? Why did it work last night? The DCHP release was set to 1 day and I noticed in cmd 'ipconfig /all' that the IPv4 looked like it change by a single digit. Now I've changed everything back And got back internet

 

[elevator_100]

So I'm gonna try again, but this time try to turn off DHCP before the lease renews/expires

 

[anotherdrew]

Your Zyxel is modem/router combination. It will have 2 IP addresses. A public one that you get from Century Link and a private one (192.168.0.1 or something similar). It is safe to list private address here because we can't get to them. Do not list public ones (or list them as 12.57.x.x).

So, Century Link gives you 1 public IP address. As you might know IPv4 addresses are in short supply so if you want more, you have to pay for them. The address will also be dynamic, so it changes from time to time. This can be an issue if you are trying to run a server that can be accessed from the Internet. The solutions are buying a static IP address from your ISP or use a DDNS (DynDNS) service. This service will keep up with your public IP address so you can always find your server.

For the devices inside your network you will private addresses (ones that start with 192.168 or 10). Your DHCP server (part of the zyxel) will assign each device on your network an address. It will also inform each device about DNS servers and a gateway. The gateway is the private IP address for the Zyxel. Again, these address can change when you turn your machines on and off, but that's fine ... unless you are using a port forward for a server. The port forward rules tells the Zyxel that anytime someone contacts my public IP addess on port XX, it should forward that message to 192.168.0.10 on port XX. So, your server must always have the address of 192.168.0.10 and nothing else can have that. To do this you can set a static IP address for that server that is outside your DHCP pool range OR you can setup a MAC-IP binding. The binding tells the DHCP server that the device with a specific MAC address (every device has a unique one) should get a specific IP address.

I hope this helps. Let us know.

**edit ... the first picture on this page is a good representation of your network .. https://binfalse.de/2011/06/30/connecting-through-a-nat-the-not-trivial-direction/
.

 

[elevator_100]

Thank you! I feel like I have a compass now. I'll check back in after I do some more poking. I was using the private IP, you actually guessed it right lol.

 

[elevator_100]

So I stayed up last night reading and had a eureka moment in bed after thinking about the picture you linked. If I understand correctly; I had actually only set up my router to assume/look for a static IP. When my devices had their IP addresses shuffled by the DCHP they stayed tethered to the network but the router was directing the internet to their old IPs So if that's all correct my next line of question is: [if I end up paying for a static IP] do I just want a single static IP for the PC I'm running the game server on or do I need a block of them(century links sells single IPs and the next tier is eight IPs). I'm going to look into DynDNS tonight to decide if I want to set that up or give up and buy static IP(however l, if I can just get away with buying a single Static IP it's actually pretty cheap).. also Readreading your post: is this MAC-binding a rephrasing of the DynDNS solution or a third solution?

 

[anotherdrew]

I think you are still confusing what is going inside your network and outside your network. Imagine your router/modem is an emissary between 2 worlds. From inside your network, you can look out, but you only see what your router/modem lets you see. To the outside work, all they see is the router/modem (for security reasons, this is a good thing). Important thing ... 2 different worlds. Your network (private) and the internet (public).

As you have it setup, your router gets it's public IP address from your ISP via DHCP. In this case, your router is the client. As a client you have no control ... you ask and you receive. Now, on the private side of things, your router acts like a server. The devices on your network are the clients. They ask and the your router gives them information. This is where the MAC-IP binding comes in. If you set that up on your router then the devices inside your network will get the same private addresses consistently. This is potentially important because if you setup rules on your router (like port forward) that computer 1 should get XXXXX data, then you better know where to find computer 1.

DynDNS is something that happens on the Internet. Think of it as a phone book to find your emissary (router) when he is staying in a different hotel each night. We could easily put your emissary up in a long term stay hotel and always know where he is (a static IP ... cost like $5/month ?) or we could get a secretary (DynDNS service) to find where he staying now ($25/year ... there is free, but it's a pain) and pass that information to the person asking.

Do you want a single IP or a block? If you go the static IP route, then all you need is 1. A block would be for someone running a dozen or more servers. With that single IP, someone who wanted to play your game would knock on the emissary's door and say "I want to play on port 21025". Your emissary (router) will see the rule that says people who ask for port 21025 need to given access to the Starbound server. If someone came to the emissary's door and said "I want to play on port 5555", the emissary (router) would see no rules and ignore that person (good for security).

Hope this helps more ... fire off more questions if you have them.

 

[elevator_100]

Sorry it took a while to check back in. Thursday I kinda just recouped and last night I worked on it. I have only tested logging into the domain/game on the same machine because atm my other machine is busy, and I haven't had a friend outside the network test it yet because my mac is uploading the modpack they need, BUT I was able to log in using the domain so I do think it's working.

I ended up going and using the paid version of NO-IP as a DynDNS service. It's just 25$ a year, and I can host up to 25 domains. Way cheaper than the 20$ installaion fee + 6$ a month for a single static IP from century link. Honestly it was much simpler to set up than all the static IP stuff I was trying (I thought I could just set up my router as a static IP and it would work, but I guess I was just lying to my router about having a static IP). The free version didn't sound too bad, but it said you have to renew/verify I think monthly; and I want to leave an open-universe game server open for friends so it's way easier to just worry about server saves and restarts w/o adding a subscription verification that could sever connection to the mix. AND I have the option to host up to 24 different domains. I have a couple other projects in mind now. I should have resources to host another small game, a website for the music I make, and set up the tower as a streaming machine (it lives under the TV/stereo anyway).

Thank you so much for your help @anotherdrew, you are magnificent.