PVPGN+D2GS help

Trying to get a personal private server going just over my local network. I've followed guides and just cant seem to break past the waiting in line 1 bit. Few questions, does d2gs require an active internet connection to run over just local use? Like say I had a router with no live net connection going to it and had the server computer and the one for playing D2 connected to it? If it can be done how do I go about doing that like address translation.conf for instance not having an external IP and all that? Also I never did see any solid info on how you actually turn on and off d2gs only how to install it? I did come across the net start d2gs and net stop d2gs but that is about it, do you start it like that or is it supposed to start up when you start PvPGN, d2dbs and d2cs? . What are the ways you can confirm that its actually up and running tho? I portfowarded ports 6112-6114, 4000, 8888 to the server IP and port 16112 to my computer running D2 based on one of the guides I was going off of. Just not real sure anymore about at my wits end tho lol.

Edit: Well I came across some Youtube video that had a link to some shared configs changed up my router to 192.168.0.1 and set the server to use what he had configured did a reinstall on pvpgn and d2gs and behold I was able to make a game hurrah. Games don't appear to be showing up in the list tho.

Edit 2: I guess I got games showing up now I ended up making an easy switch over to changing what was pre-configured in the configs I downloaded to my active internet connection. That being said if someone wants to make others lives a lot simpler maybe even the people behind pvpgn they should tweak the configs that need changed and in place of where you would put in your local IP they should just put like localreplace and then maybe like externalreplace then have a guide wrote up that tells them to open up all the required  configs in notepad++ is what I used they have a handy replace option in there so they can open that up put in localreplace for the find and just input their ip and hit the replace all in all documents open then bam just like that you put in your ip where it was needed without much work at all. You can also make a selection of whatever configs need changed and just right click and hit edit in notepad++ and it will open them all at once.