I figured out a solution to my problem. In order to maintain a static IP(internal and external) which assures everything works properly with port forwarding on my router, I am using the following manually set properties:
Under => Internet Procol Version 4(TCP/IPv4) Properties
=> Use the following IP address:
- IP address
- Subnet mask
- Default gateway
=> Use the following DNS server addresses:
- Preferred DNS server
- Alternate DNS server
At some point my ISP must have changed their preferred and alternate DNS servers. I temporarily set the above functions to, "Obtain an IP address automatically", and "Obtain DNS server address automatically", then went into the command prompt and used "ipconfig /all" which gave me the current DNS servers which my ISP wants to use. Once I manually set those new parameters in TCP/IPv4, everything worked fine and my server is visible and joinable from the internet.
Feel free to check it out if you like.
http://www.savagerealms.freeforums.org
current IP for direct connect: 50.147.73.100:5121
You'll need all bioware expansions and updates plus CEP 2.2 or newer.