Manual Ip Settings Mac

Posted on 11-05-2021 by admin

Many routers allow you to assign a pool of IP addresses that are handed out to specific devices (based on the device’s physical, or MAC address). This method offers a couple of significant advantages: IP addresses are still managed by the router, meaning that you won’t have to make (and keep up with) changes on each individual device. Click TCP/IP in the button bar to access the common TCP/IP network settings. Use the Configure IPv4 drop-down menu to change your settings to be configured Manually. Enter the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Router. Configuring DNS Servers – Mac. Click DNS in the button bar to change your domain name server settings.

Sometimes, it’s better to assign a PC it’s own IP address rather than letting your router assign one automatically. Join us as we take a look at assigning a static IP address in Windows.

Static vs. Automatic IP Addressing

Right now, the IP addresses for your PCs and other devices are probably assigned automatically by your router using a procotol known as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). It’s a handy way for devices to connect to your network more easily, because you don’t have to configure IP addressing for each new device yourself. The downside to automatic addressing is that it’s possible for a device’s IP address to change from time to time.

Mostly, that’s not a big deal, but there are times that you might want a device to have a static, unchanging IP address. For example:

You have a device (like a home media server, say) that you want to be able to find reliably and you (or other devices) prefer to locate it by IP address. Using IP addresses is often much handier when troubleshooting your network, for example.
You have certain apps that can only connect to network devices using their IP address. In particular, many older networking apps suffer this limitation.
You forward ports through your router to devices on your network. Some routers play nice with port forwarding and dynamic IP addresses; others do not.

Whatever your reason, assigning static IP addresses to devices is not difficult, but you do have a choice to make—whether to do it from the router or on the device itself.

Assign Static IP Addresses Via Your Router

While this article covers assigning static IP addresses to PCs within Windows itself, there is another way to go about it. Many routers allow you to assign a pool of IP addresses that are handed out to specific devices (based on the device’s physical, or MAC address). This method offers a couple of significant advantages:

IP addresses are still managed by the router, meaning that you won’t have to make (and keep up with) changes on each individual device.
It’s easier to assign addresses within the same IP address pool your router uses.

RELATED:How to Set Static IP Addresses On Your Router

This article is about assigning static IP addresses directly to PCs running Windows. We’ve already got a great guide on How to Set Static IP Addresses On Your Router, so if that’s the way you want to go, be sure to give it a read.

With all that in mind, though, let’s take a look at how to assign static IP addresses within Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10.

Set a Static IP Address in Windows 7, 8, or 10

To change the computer’s IP address in Windows, you’ll need to open the “Network Connections” window. Hit Windows+R, type “ncpa.cpl” into the Run box, and then hit Enter.

In the “Network Connections” window, right-click the adapter for which you want to set a static IP address, and then select the “Properties” command.

In the properties window for the adapter, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and then click the “Properties” button.

Select the “Use the following IP address” option, and then type in the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway that corresponds with your network setup. Next, type in your preferred and alternate DNS server addresses. Finally, select the “Validate settings upon exit” option so that Windows immediately checks your new IP address and corresponding information to ensure that it works. When you’re ready, click the “OK” button.

And then close out of the network adapter’s properties window.

Windows automatically runs network diagnostics to verify that the connection is good. If there are problems, Windows will give you the option of running the Network troubleshooting wizard. However, if you do run into trouble, the wizard likely won’t do you too much good. It’s better to check that your settings are valid and try again.

Set a Static IP Address in Windows Vista

Changing your IP from DHCP to a Static address in Vista is similar to other versions of Windows, but getting to the correct location is a bit different. Open the Start Menu, right-click on Network, and select Properties.

The Network and Sharing Center opens…click on Manage network connections.

Right-click on the network adapter you want to assign an IP address and click Properties.

Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click the Properties button.

Now change the IP, Subnet mask, Default Gateway, and DNS Server Addresses. When you’re finished click OK.

You’ll need to close out of Local Area Connection Properties for the settings to go into effect.

Open the Command Prompt and use the ipconfig command to verify that the changes were successful.

Set a Static IP Address in Windows XP

To set a Static IP in Windows XP, right-click the “My Network Places” icon, and then select “Properties.”

Right-click the adapter for which you want to set the IP, and then select “Properties” from the context menu.

Select the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” entry, and then click the “Properties” button.

Select the “Use the following IP address” option. Type in the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server addresses you want to use. When you’re finished, click the “OK” button.

You will need to close out of the adapter’s properties window before the changes go into effect.

And you can verify your new settings by using the ipconfig command at the command prompt.

By and large, it’s better to let most of your devices have their IP addresses assigned automatically by your router. Occasionally, though, you might want to set a static IP address for a particular device. While you can set static IP addresses directly on your devices (and this article has shown you how to do just that on Windows PCs), we still recommending setting up static IP addressing on your router if possible. It will just make life easier.

DHCP – automatic assignment of IP addresses

In a home network, the router usually decides how the LAN should work. The router will forward traffic between the clients on the LAN and also between the LAN and the Internet.

With that in mind, it is only natural that the router also hands out IP addresses and other necessary information to the computers on the network. This is done via DHCP, which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. In other words, it is a protocol to automatically hand out configuration to computers and other devices on the network.

Usually when you receive your home router it is already pre-configured with a DHCP server to hand out configuration to your computers and other devices. The router is also prepared so that the addresses that the router hands out via DHCP is on the same IP network as the router’s LAN IP address. This is necessary for the clients to be able to use the router as their Default Gateway.

When a computer connects to a network it will try to ask for an IP address. This is done by sending out a DHCP request where it asks if there are any available DHCP servers on the network. If any DHCP server responds then the computer will use DHCP to ask for an IP address and all the other necessary information it needs from the DHCP server.

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So when your router sees this DHCP request it will hand out an available IP address from its pool of free IP addresses, together with the other details that the computer needs.

In the above example, the router’s DHCP server has a pool of available IP addresses starting with 192.168.1.2 and going all the way up to 192.168.1.254. The router will hand out the first available IP address from that pool and will mark the address as “leased” so that it does not hand out the same IP address to any other client on the network.

All clients on the LAN will receive the same Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and DNS Server settings from the DHCP server since those details are common to all clients.

Manual configuration of an IP address

Instead of letting the computer obtain its IP address from the router via DHCP you can choose to manually configure the IP settings on the computer. Normally this is avoided since it can cause a few different problems unless it is handled properly by the administrator, which is you.

When and why would you need to manually configure an IP address on a client?

If a computer obtains its IP address automatically via DHCP then it is not certain that the computer will obtain the same IP address each and every time you start the computer. The DHCP server remembers which computer that has gotten which IP address, but only for a certain amount of time. If a computer is powered off for too long (often a day or two, depending on how the router is configured) then the DHCP server will forget which IP address that it handed out to the computer. Also, if the router is powered off for any reason then it will typically forget about any DHCP leases it has previously handed out.

In some special cases, this could lead to problems. One such example is if you have had to make a Port Forward (a subject which is discussed in further details in other parts of this guide). Port forwards often point to an internal LAN IP address of a computer. As long as the computer keeps the same IP address the Port Forward will work. But if the computer changes IP addresses every so often, then after each IP address change the Port Forward must be updated in the router configuration.

In that situation, it is often recommended to configure the computer that should receive the Port Forward manually with an IP address. That way the IP address will always stay the same and the Port Forward keeps working.

When you configure an IP address manually on a computer you need to configure the same settings that a computer normally receives via DHCP:

An available IP address on the same IP network as the router
The same Subnet Mask that the router is using
Default Gateway, which should be set to the LAN IP address of the router
DNS Server address – either the router LAN IP address or another DNS server on the Internet. You may use the same address that the router normally hands out via DHCP

Manual Ip Settings Mac Os

IP address conflicts

If you choose to manually configure an IP address on a computer, then you also should make sure to exclude that IP address from the pool of DHCP addresses in your home router. Otherwise the router might hand out the same IP address to some other computer on the network.

Using the street address analogy again, if two houses on the same street for some reason had the exact same house number, then the confusion would be great. Some packages and letters would end up at the correct house whereas others would end up at the wrong place. It would very much be hit and miss with a big random element to it.

The same thing would happen on a computer network where two devices were configured to use the exact same IP address. You then have an IP address conflict on the network, and the result is basically that communication stops working for the involved clients. Network communication simply does not work if only approximately half of the traffic ends up in at the correct place.

In modern networks and with newer operating systems the computers will try to avoid IP address conflicts by checking first if the IP address seems to be taken already. But even then only the first computer that obtains the IP address will work correctly. The second computer that accidentally is given the same IP address as the first one will notice the IP address conflict and will then simply avoid talking on the network until it has been given another IP address.

Ip Settings Windows 7

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DNS, linking names with IP addresses

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Ports and NAT

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