An IP address is your link to the world. It is a network address for your computer so that the Internet knows where to send all your emails and cat videos.
Most of the users using a computer right now are basic surfers of the internet. These users mostly watch videos, receive and send emails and maybe even game online. For these users, a Dynamic IP address – router assigned address which changes upon a reboot- is just enough. If you don’t belong to this group and are a user who runs a server or an FTP site or any application that uses external access, an unchanging IP address is necessary – Static IP address.
Setting a static IP address is pretty easy and straightforward. The best part is you can do it for free!
Here’s how to set up your static IP address:
On your PC
For Windows
Step 1. Go to Start from your desktop. Now, choose Run. Type in cmd in the box that pops up.
Step 2. In the all-black command prompt screen, enter ipconfig/all and your IP information should appear (the address, gateway and subnet mask). Copy this information and close the screen
Step 3. Navigate to the Network and Internet from settings. Under Advanced Network Settings select Change Adapter Options.
Step 4. Right-click on the Local area connection and choose Properties.
Step 5. Select Internet Protocol version 4 and choose Properties. In the dialogue box that appears, under the General tab select Use the following IP address button.
Step 6. Remember the information you copied earlier? Now enter that information into appropriate boxes.
In the IP address, the only change is made to the last digit. For example, if your routers IP address is 192.168.1.1, change that last digit 1 to any number between 2 and 254. It cant be the same as your router’s.
Step 8. Check the box next to Validate settings on exit and then click on OK. Your computer will now establish a connection with the new static IP address.
Note – repeat this process for every computer on the network and remember to provide a new digit for every machine.
For Linux ( RHEL/CentOS)
The below guide is for a system with only one Ethernet interface(eth0).
Open the /etc/network/interfaces file to produce :
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 10.0.0.41
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 10.0.0.0
broadcast 10.0.0.255
gateway 10.0.0.1
dns-nameservers 10.0.0.1 8.8.8.8
dns-domain acme.com
dns-search acme.com
Now, locate the “iface eth0..” line and change dynamic to static. In the address line, change the address to the static IP address. In the netmask line, change the address to the appropriate subnet mask. In the gateway line, replace the address with the correct gateway address. In the dns – nameservers line, add the nameserver information.
Please contact your network administrator for the correct information on your IP address, subnet mask, gateway or dns-nameservers.
If you are satisfied with the configuration, restart the interface with the below command. If you are connected with an SSH, reconnect using the new IP address :
ifdown eth0; ifup eth0
Well that was easy, wasn’t it? Go ahead and try it for yourself. Good luck!
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