Setting up LAN - beginner

[Fr4nt1s3k]

Hello,
I have 2-4 computers I would like to connect together + if possible, I want them to access the internet too.

 

Right now I have only 1 computer, satellite dish and little box connecting these two (it has only 2 ports for this purpose).

Some time ago, I asked my ISP to give me my own public IP address 62.???.???.?21 which will be routed to 192.168.1.7. I did this because some of my games had multiplayer issues with NAT transferal, port forwarding etc., I don't fully understand all of it, but I kinda know what it's about.

 

Would it be possible to connect a switch device to that "little box" and connect the 4 computers to the switch? If yes, what would happen to my public IP address? Don't switches have their own IP address too? I really have no idea how to setup the network while preserving the public IP reserved for the one certain PC and it's other settings.

 

Here are pictures to make it easier to understand the situation.

[jj9987]

That depends what this "little box" is and what it does. Is it a router, does it do routing? Or is it just a satellite modem?

 

You say it routes traffic to 192.168.1.7. That sounds like you do have an internal network and that "little box" is a router doing some kind of NAT.

Can it support multiple devices, is it running DHCP, is it capable of one-to-many NAT - these are the questions we need to find answers to.

[Fr4nt1s3k]

2 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

That depends what this "little box" is and what it does. Is it a router, does it do routing? Or is it just a satellite modem?

 

You say it routes traffic to 192.168.1.7. That sounds like you do have an internal network and that "little box" is a router doing some kind of NAT.

Can it support multiple devices, is it running DHCP, is it capable of one-to-many NAT - these are the questions we need to find answers to.

I think it does the internal network, but only has 2 ports. One which comes from the satellite and one coming to my PC... thinking about it, could I just replace the box with a switch?

The network would look like this:
gateway - switch: 192.168.0.1
PC1: 192.168.0.7

PC2: 192.168.0.2

PC3: 192.168.0.3

PC4: 192.168.0.4

Like this, public IP address for PC1 will be preserved, right? Assuming it is set in that "little box" and not on ISP's side somewhere?

[Fr4nt1s3k]

Nevermind, I guess I will just buy a switch or router and see what happens.

[jj9987]

Sounds like your "little box" is indeed a router and a modem and is doing proper NAT. Your external IP is most likely configured on ISP side for your connection and is based on your router's MAC address or some other hardcoded identifier/serial number.