Sometimes you may find that port forwarding suddenly stops working. This usually happens because your PC/PS3/Xbox360 has been given a new IP address and the ports are no longer being forwarded to the correct device on your network. This can happen at regular intervals, especially if you have a few devices connecting to your router. To prevent this, follow your routers guidelines to assign a static IP to your console/pc before setting up port forwarding to that device. Most routers have help documentation links or help popups visible while in the administration section. If this is not the case, please contact your ISP for assistance.

It may also be useful to give devices on your network a sensible name, on many routers devices are listed by MAC address (they look something like 0a-0b-0c-11-12). Most routers will allow you to give devices a better name, e.g rename 0a-0b-0c-11-12 to PS3. Your router should have a page listing all devices connected to it, look on that page for more information on renaming devices.

To help identify which device is which you will need to look at the case of devices on your network (laptop, PS3, Xbox etc) most networked devices will have a label showing the MAC address, usually near the serial number. Most routers have help documentation links or help popups visible while in the administration section. If this is not the case, please contact your ISP for assistance.