Ok, let's go through the port forwarding on your router, to make absolutely sure you didn't miss something.
You said you have a Netgear DG834G. I've never used that router, but I found some instructions for how to forward ports on that router, so this is how I think it should go...
First, find the "local" IP address on the machine running FSHost. To do this, on the FSHost PC, go to Start / Programs / Accessories / Command Prompt, type "ipconfig", and press Enter. You should find an IP address that begins with 192.168.0 (or something close to that). The last digit is the one you want to remember, and use it in place of the "X" below:
- Login to the router's config page.
- Under Security in the left hand menu click Services.
- Click Add a Custom Service
- Name: "FSHost-1", Protocol: TCP, Port Start: 81, Port End: 81
- Apply
- Under Security in the left hand menu click Rules.
- Under "Inbound Services" click Add.
- Service: "FSHost-1", Action: "ALLOW always", Send to LAN Server: 192.168.0.X, Wan users: any, start: (all 0's), end: (all 0's), Log: never
- Apply
Then set FSHost to use port 81 for the Master Server, and give it a try. If it doesn't work, let us know all the details of what you tried. If it does work, you'll probably need to do the same for UDP ports 23456, 6073, and the range from 2300 to 2400. If you're supporting FS2002, also add TCP 47624.
Russell