One way of organizing your home network is by assigning each of your networked computers with a static IP address instead of using DHCP. With DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), each computers and devices will have to request for an IP address everytime it’s booted up. If in case you have to troubleshoot a connection issue with your network and it’s configured on DHCP, it would be a hassle to go through each computer and device just to figure out its IP address.
Using Static IPs prevents IP address conflicts between your networked devices and allows you to manage them more easily. Assigning fixed IPs to Windows is basically the same process, but the navigation as to where you need to be varies between each Windows version. This article will show you how to assign a static IP address on a Windows 10 computer. If this is what you need to do, then proceed with the steps below.
STEP 1: Right-click on the Start button, then go to Network Connections.
STEP 2: Right-click on the network connection your computer is currently using, then select Properties.
STEP 3: Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) from the list, then click the Properties button.
STEP 4: Select the Use the following IP address option.
NOTE: When assigning a static IP address, make sure to set a value that will not conflict with others on your network. You may refer to your router documentation for the range of IP address that it assigns to its devices.
STEP 5: Next to the IP address field, enter the IP address value you want to assign on the computer.
NOTE: If the DHCP range of your router is from let’s say, 192.168.1.100-200, you can use any range from 192.168.1.2-99 for example. You can also view this information from your router’s DHCP server settings, which can be foundby accessing its setup/configuration page.
STEP 6: In the Subnet mask field, enter “255.255.255.0.”
STEP 7: In the Default gateway field, enter the IP address of your router or gateway device.
NOTE: Usually, the default gateway address for most routers is 192.168.1.1. Again, you may refer to your device documentation to determine the correct IP address of your router.
STEP 8: For the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields, you can take a look for the exact DNS values that your router is getting from your ISP, which can be usually found by accessing your router’s configuration page.
NOTE: Alternatively, you can simply set the values “4.2.2.2” and “4.2.2.1” respectively as your DNS servers.
STEP 9: Click OK on all windows to save your changes.
