diff --git a/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Common.cs b/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Common.cs
index 5ad389b3b..b05928327 100644
--- a/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Common.cs
+++ b/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Common.cs
@@ -7,12 +7,6 @@ namespace Telepathy
     public abstract class Common
     {
         // common code /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-        // connectionId counter
-        // (right now we only use it from one listener thread, but we might have
-        //  multiple threads later in case of WebSockets etc.)
-        // -> static so that another server instance doesn't start at 0 again.
-        protected static SafeCounter counter = new SafeCounter();
-
         // incoming message queue of <connectionId, message>
         // (not a HashSet because one connection can have multiple new messages)
         protected SafeQueue<Message> messageQueue = new SafeQueue<Message>();
diff --git a/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Server.cs b/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Server.cs
index ae7c552ae..5e5ad8c44 100644
--- a/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Server.cs
+++ b/Unity-Technologies-networking/Runtime/Telepathy/Server.cs
@@ -15,6 +15,20 @@ public class Server : Common
         // clients with <connectionId, TcpClient>
         SafeDictionary<uint, TcpClient> clients = new SafeDictionary<uint, TcpClient>();
 
+        // connectionId counter
+        // (right now we only use it from one listener thread, but we might have
+        //  multiple threads later in case of WebSockets etc.)
+        // -> static so that another server instance doesn't start at 0 again.
+        static SafeCounter counter = new SafeCounter();
+
+        // public next id function in case someone needs to reserve an id
+        // (e.g. if hostMode should always have 0 connection and external
+        //  connections should start at 1, etc.)
+        public static uint NextConnectionId()
+        {
+            return counter.Next();
+        }
+
         // check if the server is running
         public bool Active
         {
@@ -45,7 +59,7 @@ void Listen(int port)
                     TcpClient client = listener.AcceptTcpClient();
 
                     // generate the next connection id (thread safely)
-                    uint connectionId = counter.Next();
+                    uint connectionId = NextConnectionId();
 
                     // spawn a thread for each client to listen to his
                     // messages