Do note that we’re talking about static private IP addresses here, i.e., ones assigned to devices on your local network. This is different from a static public IP, i.e. WAN IP assigned to your router/modem. You’ll need to get the details from your ISP and configure the router for the latter. Most routers do support DHCP reservation, which uses a device’s MAC Address to assign a static IP to it from within the DHCP scope. But that, again, falls more on the router configuration side of things and will require a tutorial of its own. In this article, we’ll instead focus on how you can set a static IPv4 address on Windows devices from the live Windows environment. We’ll do this without accessing the router management interface or anything of the sort.
IPv4 Address Classes
An IP address is basically an identifier, a unique set of numbers assigned to a device to identify it on a network. In the case of IPv4, which is still primarily used instead of IPv6, an IP address is a 32-bit number. As such, IPv4 addresses are divided into four octets (e.g., 192.168.10.7). The first octet, i.e., the first decimal number (192 in the above example), determines the IP class. The table below should help you figure out what class any IP address belongs to and what the default subnet mask for it is. Let’s look at the earlier example once again. We’re dealing with a class C IP address with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This means the first 24 bits, i.e., the first three octets, represent the network part of the IP address (192.168.10). The remaining bits, or the fourth octet, represents the host part (7). This is important because when setting a static IP, you should only configure the host ID. Changing the network ID would mean the device is no longer on the same network. In the above example, you would only change 7 to something else. Class C IP Addresses are most commonly used in small LANs, but let’s also look at a class B case (e.g., 172.16.74.23). Here, the first 16 bits (172.16) represent the network ID, and the remaining bits represent the host ID (74.23). Thus, you can change 74.23 to different values in this scenario.
Things to Know Before Setting Static IP
We’ve covered how the IP Address class affects which values you can change. With this in mind, here are some other things you should know when setting a Static IP on your Windows device:
You can use the ipconfig command in CMD to check the device’s current IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. ipconfig /all will give you much more information, including things like DNS. These will be necessary when setting the static IP.The static IP should be set outside the DHCP scope to ensure IP conflicts don’t happen. You can check the DHCP range via the router’s settings page.Additionally, you can ping an IP address to ensure it’s not already in use. For instance, if you ping 192.168.18.23 and get “Destination Host is Unreachable” as the output, it usually means the IP isn’t in use.In some cases, this output can also occur because the firewall is blocking the connection. Thus, it’s better to use the arp -a command. You can use a static IP as long as it’s not on this list.
How to Set Static IP in Windows?
The Network Control Panel applet is very intuitive, and it’s most commonly used to change IP configurations in Windows, so we’ll start with that. Ultimately, the other methods also lead to the same result, so you’re free to use your preferred method.
Through Control Panel
Here are the steps to set a static IP on Windows via the Control Panel:
Through Settings
As stated, you can also set a static IP via Windows settings. Here are the necessary steps for this:
Through Command Prompt
As usual, the command prompt allows you to assign a static IP efficiently through the netsh tool. Here are the necessary steps to use it:
Through PowerShell
Netsh is a legacy tool. If you want a newer alternative, you can also use Powershell’s NetTCPIP module to set a static IP. Here are the necessary steps for this method:
