Hi folks , my first post so please be gentle

i'm struggling trying to setup my Network with static IP using the WL 500G Deluxe, i think i'm doing it right through the router options but i am struggling to get the internet set up alongside. i have tried using the router as a gateway and DNS on the clients and tried with just as the gateway and using NTL's DNS ( 194.168.4.100 and ...8.100 ) but i cant seem to get it going. am i missing something only a fool would miss. i hope there is someone out there who could help me on this , maybe with a fool proof setup for the router and an idea on the client settings. I'm using the dynamic settings at the moment and all is well but i'm unable to use port forwarding and to be honest the network transfer rate is much like a snail, i'm hoping static IP's will speed traffic up for me. ( 100MB takes a good couple of minutes and surely that should be 20 secs or thereabouts at 100Mbs ? )
any help would be greatly appreciated.....

Mft