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[Racedog]

I like to connect to my JRiver library (kept on my PC at home) from work on my Ipad or phone to play on my Bluetooth speaker. Every so often, I have to go back to my router and change my internal IP address. What am I doing wrong? There has to be a way to keep this from happening short of having to pay my isp extra for a static ip address.

[RoderickGI]

If it is just the internal IP Address of your PC changing, due no doubt to PC and/or router reboots, which prevents the port forwarding from working in your router so that your connection to the PC from outside your network doesn't work, then you can just set up a DHCP Reservation for your PC in your router. A DHCP Reservation means that any time your PC connects to the router it will be given the same IP Address. Check the manual for your router. Most modern routers support reservations.

I don't know what you mean by "Change the IP address". Do you mean you change the IP Address that port forwarding points to? Or are you changing the PC IP Address itself, which could only be done if you are using a Static IP Address for your PC, assigned by your router? I recommend that you don't use static IP addresses on your LAN, and instead use DHCP Reservations as above. Your LAN will work much better and require less management, if any.



I don't understand how paying for an external Static IP Address with your ISP would help, if it is the internal IP Address that changes. But if the problem is that your external WAN ISP IP Address is changing, that is what the JRiver Access Key is for. Using the JRiver Access Key method to connect to your PC from outside your network gets around the problem of your external IP Address changing. JRiver keeps track of external IP Address changes and keeps it associated with your Access Key, so that any time you connect using your Access Key, the correct external Internet (WAN) IP Address is used.

Where the Access Key method may fail is if the PC was asleep and your external address changed, then river wouldn't know about it, so you couldn't connect.

So if it is your external IP Address that is changing, and you allow your PC to sleep, and your ISP changes your WAN Address fairly often, then you would need to connect from outside your network using the current external Internet address of your ISP connection. You can do that using one of the Dynamic DNS services available, if your router supports it. You don't say what you use to connect to your PC MC Server, but I assume it is JRemote, Panel, or Gizmo? I don't know if they support connecting using a URL provided by a Dynamic DNS service, but if they don't, you could use some other App to wake your PC remotely using the external IP Address provided by a Dynamic DNS service. Once the PC has been woken it will update the external IP Address associated with your Access Key, so then you can connect to your PC using the JRiver Access Key method.


I assume that your router supports Wake On LAN/WAN and you do have WOL/WOW working from outside your network?

[Racedog]

If it is just the internal IP Address of your PC changing, due no doubt to PC and/or router reboots, which prevents the port forwarding from working in your router so that your connection to the PC from outside your network doesn't work, then you can just set up a DHCP Reservation for your PC in your router. A DHCP Reservation means that any time your PC connects to the router it will be given the same IP Address. Check the manual for your router. Most modern routers support reservations.

I guess this is the issue. I have a Netgear R7000. Under Lan setup, there is an option for "use router as DHCP server". This is checked, but has a starting IP address and and ending IP address. These had settings that spanned a range of .x to .xxx. I suppose I just change this so the starting and the ending are the same. Is that correct?

[Racedog]

I don't know what you mean by "Change the IP address". Do you mean you change the IP Address that port forwarding points to? Or are you changing the PC IP Address itself, which could only be done if you are using a Static IP Address for your PC, assigned by your router? I recommend that you don't use static IP addresses on your LAN, and instead use DHCP Reservations as above. Your LAN will work much better and require less management, if any.

Yes...in port forwarding

[Racedog]

OK...after more reading, I see that was not the way to do this. I changed these numbers back to the original numbers. (I now know what that spread was allowing for...doh)

MainPC is just that...my main PC where JRiver server is on.

I see that there is an option for "Address Reservations". I select "add" and then it shows me the list of different things attached to the router. I would then select MainPC (and it's IP address and MAC address) and then apply the setting. Now that there is a reserved address for MainPC, this should prevent my internal IP address for MainPC from changing, correct?

[AndrewFG]

Yup. A DHCP reservation is indeed what you need.

[RoderickGI]

this should prevent my internal IP address for MainPC from changing, correct?

Yes.

In all my Netgear routers, including my current ISP Modem/Router, DHCP Reservations have always been under the LAN menu. In my current device it is even called "DHCP Reservation Lease Info".

It sounds like you found the correct settings.

[Racedog]

Thanks! Big help !