@GreenToast glad to help

@tdelios startup your recalbox, with a keyboard plugged in
On the frontend screen, press F4 to quit EmulationStation, then ALT+F2 to get a terminal.
Type
# ifconfig
you'll get you MAC@

(then, type # /etc/init.d/S31emulationstation start to exit this terminal and start EmulationStation)

(source)

Most home internet box and routers have everything you need:

Regarding port forwarding, most devices have PAT/NAT option taking a hostname or an IP. Just configure your target machine using its hostname: RECALBOX

Then, if you still need static IP addresses, most devices allow to reserve and assign IPs to devices identified by their MAC addresses. IMHO it's the cleaner way to assign static IP in a home network.

If it's still not enough, pick up an IP address outside the range of your DHCP, and fill in the required fields in recalbox.conf:

wifi.ip=manual ip address wifi.gateway=new gateway wifi.netmask=new netmask

right, i've tried adding   dns-namservers 8.8.8.8 into the interfaces file, but again this has no affect. in the end i've switched it back to dhcp and reserved the ip address on my router, not the best solution, but for now it will have to do