the easy answer to your question is to tell you to look up IP addressing on google or wiki.
a longer one is to tell you that if you assign a static address to your computer, and you assign it the wrong one, like the same one the router has, then yes, it will interfere with all other computers on the same router.
although it is possible that you can give it a good address and not cause problems, but i recommend NOT giving a static address to your computer, and just let the router control what address your computer will have.
the address your computer has, as long as it is one that the router has selected for you, will not be an issue with the way you connect to other computers on the internet side of your router.
such as when you are hosting a game.
there is a thing called NAP that takes care of all that, and i am not up to giving an explanation of NAP here when there are such good ones available through any search engine or wiki.
and still, this could turn out to be a long explanation.
i'll try to keep it short, and assume that you can hit google for details that you don't understand, but just from the way you ask this question i'll bet you already know most of this.
first, almost ALL ISP's give you a dynamic IP address to your modem, DSL or otherwise.
from what you say, i would guess that the modem and router are in one package, as mine is.
the modem/router then assigns a LOCAL address to each machine connected to it on the user side.
the addresses for use on the internet are reconzably different from the addresses used on a LAN.
the machines on the user side of the router are the LAN.
there are certain sets of addresses that are used for LAN's, and are NEVER used on the internet.
this makes it so that i can guess the address of your machine starts with 192.168. and then some other numbers.
the routher takes care of this, if you allow it to.
i recomend that you do.
the address of the modem/router for the LAN [the user side] side will also start with these numbers.
this is for the LAN side of the router.
the modem part of the router is what is connected to the internet, and it will have another address that is assigned to it by your ISP.
this is an address that will be selected from a range of addresses that YOUR ISP is licensed to use.
what this means is that every time your router/modem logs into the ISP it is given an address for it to use for the session that has just begun.
so let's say that your ISP is allowed to use 100 internet addresses [it is assuradly many more].
it can only choose one of those addresses, and if it has all of them assigned at the moment, then it has to wait for one of the users to end their session before it can allow new sessions/users to connect to the internet.
but it's been about 20 years since i have seen that happen, so it will probably never happen to you.
this is why IP addresses are assigned newly each time you connect, and are taken back each time you log out.
this way an ISP with 300 users can survive with only 100 ip addresses to use, since there are probably only a quarter of the people with accounts logged onto an ISP at any one time..
so this means that you have a 99 out of 100 chance that each time your modem/router connects to your isp, it will have a different IP address on the internet than it had during the last session on the internet.
no those numbers are not real, it is more likely that your ISP has many thousand IP addresses that it can use, but the gist of this is that your INTERNET address will change, even though your LAN address will be the same, and your router will use NAP to know when packets coming in from the internet go to the right machine on the LAN side.
so set up the firewall with the the right ports for your computer, and let the router take care of addressing all that.
so the question next is;
what address do you give out to the folks that want to connect to your game?
that address will be the one that your modem/router is using on the INTERNET side of itself.
i can't guess what that number is like i could with the address on the LAN side because i don't know what pool of addresses your ISP is licensed to use, but i am sure it won't start with 192.168.1 .
the easy way to find out is to use a search engine, i like google, and type in something like "what is my IP".
there are places that have web pages set up to just tell you your IP address, and if you get connected to one that wants you to enter your email address or any thing first, just go to a different one.
this address that you will see will be the one that your ISP has given to the modem that you are accessing the internet through, AT THIS MOMENT.
now most ISP's will keep you using that same IP address during your entire session.
but i do know for a fact that some will change it in the middle of a session, and not for being idle too long.
i had set up an FTP server on my machine temporarily so that i could send a few large files to a friend, rather than breaking them up into 80 or so parts to send as email attachments, and in the middle of the FTP session we had going, during a transfer, my ISP changed my address.
so such things happen, but i think they are rare.
the address that you get from the "what is my IP" web page is the one to give out to the people that want to connect to your game, and should be good for the entire session of a game, and then some.
just be sure that the firewall on the router, and any other firewalls you have setup, have the correct port openings for the game to your machine, and it should go smoothly.
of course there maybe other things that interfere that have nothing to do with IP addressing.
i 'd say, since you have access to more than one computer right there, try setting up to host a game on your own lan first.
also, the bandwidth needed to host a game is higher than just to play one, but should not be enough to slow down any broadband connection to the internet for anyone else using the same connection, like your dad that you mentioned.
if this did not answer you question, let me know.
but i would also recommend using wki for this kind of thing.
there are VERY good explanations there for things, and i am sure i could never describe things as well as they do there.
ray
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I use a router to connect to the World Wide Web, and while it is faster than dialup, it isn't too great for GSA and OP without some modifications. After some help from the Gamespy [Helpers], I have forwarded and triggered the necessary ports for GSA, and it doesn't annoyingly drop the connection anymore.
I would like to host a game sometime, but when I make a room, GSA tells me that my internal and external (router) IP addresses are different; nobody sees the room once OP starts. The same thing happens when using SFCdirect from Dnet, people just can't see the room. To host a room, I know that the internal computer IP and router IP need to be the same. There are enough informational websites that tell how to do that, so I don't think that would be a problem. However, I have some questions about setting a static IP:
1. Both my dad's and my computer use the same router. Would setting up a Static IP address on my computer mess with his machine?
2. Does setting a Static IP involve fiddling with the router? I need to avoid that because of #1.
Thank you for any help, it would be gladly appreciated.
Topic: Trouble hosting a multiplayer game-- Need help about setting Static IP. (Read 2445 times)