A lot of people want to know “How can I forward the SAME ports to TWO (or more) different computers?”

They either want to play the same game on two computers over the Internet at the same time, or they may want to run two filesharing programs at the same time, hoping to increase their total download speeds.


However, the RULE is:   One Port, One Computer.

Once you've forwarded a Port to ONE IP address, you CAN NOT use it with any other IP address.



Think of it this way- you're talking on your home phone to someone. Someone else picks up an extension telephone somewhere else in the house and starts dialling a DIFFERENT number and yelling into it so you can't hear the person you were talking to.

Same thing- only ONE person can use the phone at a time, no matter how many extensions you have in the house.




There IS a possible "workaround".

SOME software allows you to CHANGE the port numbers it uses. If the program you're wanting to run will let you do this, then you can CHANGE the ports in the program's setups on the SECOND computer.

Then you would forward the "normal" group of ports to the FIRST computer, and forward the "changed" group of ports to the SECOND computer.


This way EACH computer has its OWN set of ports, and the “One Port, One Computer” rule is satisfied.



NOT all software will let you do this. Older program, games especially, never considered that people might some day have MORE than one computer connected to the Internet, so they DON'T let you change the ports. With those programs, you simply CAN'T run more than one at a time on the Internet.




In this case, the only other option is to  PAY FOR  another IP address from your ISP.

Most ISPs will gladly assign you another "Public" IP address (and charge you another monthly fee).

Then EACH IP address will have its OWN set of ports, and you can use one IP address for one computer, and the other IP address for the other computer.


Note however that depending on the equipment you have, you may have to buy additional hardware to make this work,  so it comes down to how badly you want to play that particular game, or run that particular application on more than one computer at the same time.

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Correct.

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I tend to disagree.

As an example, see..

News server news.grc.com, news group grc.securitynow, thread upnp appears to be the only solution for multiple gaming consoles, post by Bart on 5/2/2009 at 3:16 PM EST.

X-URL: http://www.GRC.com/groups/securitynow:14485

Xref: news.grc.com grc.securitynow:14485

X-URL2: http://12078.net/grcnews/article.php?group=grc.securitynow&id=14485