How To Set A Static Ip Windows 10

Routers both modern and antiquated allow users to prepare static IP addresses for devices on the network, but what'southward the practical use of static IP addresses for a domicile user? Read on every bit we explore when you should, and shouldn't, assign a static IP.

Beloved How-To Geek,

After reading over your five things to do with a new router article, I was poking around in the control panel of my router. I of the things I plant among all the settings is a table to gear up static IP addresses. I'thou pretty sure that section is self explanatory in as much as I get that it allows you to give a figurer a permanent IP address, but I don't really understand why? I've never used that section before and everything on my dwelling house network seems to piece of work fine. Should I be using information technology? It's evidently there for some reason, even if I'chiliad not sure what that reason is!

Sincerely,

IP Curious

DHCP versus Static IP Assignment

To help you sympathize the application of static IP addresses, permit's starting time with the setup you (and virtually readers for that matter) have. The vasty majority of modern computer networks, including the little network in your dwelling house controlled by your router, apply DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). DHCP is a protocol that automatically assigns a new device an IP address from the pool of available IP addresses without any interaction from the user or a organization ambassador. Let's use an example to illustrate just how wonderful DHCP is and how easy it makes all of our lives.

RELATED: How to Ready Static DHCP And so Your Computer's IP Address Doesn't Change

Imagine that a friend visits with their iPad. They want to get on your network and update some apps on the iPad. Without DHCP, yous would need to hop on a computer, log into your router'due south admin panel, and manually assign an available accost to your friend'southward device, say x.0.0.99. That accost would exist permanently assigned to your friend'south iPad unless you went in after and manually released the address.

With DHCP, however, life is so much easier. Your friend visits, they want to bound on your network, so you give them the Wi-Fi password to login and you're washed. Equally presently equally the iPad connected to the router, the router'southward DHCP server checks the available list of IP addresses, and assigns an address with an expiration date built in. Your friend'southward iPad is given an address, connected to the network, and and so when your friend leaves and is no longer using the network that address will return to the pool for available addresses gear up to be assigned to some other device.

All that happens behind the scenes and, bold in that location isn't a critical error in the router's software, you'll never even need to pay attention to the DHCP process as it will be completely invisible to yous. For most applications, like adding mobile devices to your network, general reckoner employ, video game consoles, etc., this is a more satisfactory system and nosotros should all be happy to have DHCP and not be burdened with the hassle of manually managing our IP assignment tables.

When To Use Static IP Addresses

Although DHCP is actually peachy and makes our lives easier, thereare situations where using a manually assigned static IP address is quite handy. Let'south expect at a few situations where you would desire to assign a static IP accost in order to illustrate the benefits of doing and then.

Yous need reliable name resolution on your network for computers that demand to be consistently and accurately found. Although networking protocols have advanced over the years, and the majority of the fourth dimension using a more abstruse protocol like SMB (Server Message Block) to visit computers and shared folders on your network using the familiar //officecomputer/shared_music/ fashion address works only fine, for some applications it falls apart. For example, when setting up media syncing on XBMC it'southward necessary to use the IP accost of your media source instead of the SMB name.

Any time y'all rely on a computer or a piece of software to accurately and immediately locate another figurer on your network (as is the case with our XBMC example – the client devices need to find the media server hosting the textile) with the least chance of error, assigning a static IP address is the way to go. Straight IP-based resolution remains the near stable and error free method of communicating on a network.

You desire to impose a human-friendly numbering scheme onto your network devices. For network assignments like giving an address to your friend'due south iPad or your laptop, you lot probably don't care where in the available address cake the IP comes from considering you don't really need to know (or care). If you have devices on your network that you regularly access using command line tools or other IP-oriented applications, it can exist really useful to assignment permanent addresses to those devices in a scheme that is friendly to the human retentiveness.

For example, if left to its own devices our router would assign any available address to our three Raspberry Pi XBMC units. Considering nosotros frequently tinker with those units and access them past their IP addresses, it fabricated sense to permanently assign addresses to them that would be logical and easy to remember:

The .90 unit is in the basement, the .91 unit is on the kickoff flooring, and the .92 unit is on the second floor.

You have an application the expressly relies on IP addresses. Some applications will only let yous to supple an IP address to refer to other computers on the network. In such cases it would be extremely annoying to have to change the IP address in the application every time the IP address of the remote computer was changed in the DHCP table. Assigning a permanent address to the remote reckoner prevents you from the hassle of frequently updating your applications. This is why it's quite useful to assign any reckoner that functions every bit a server of any sort to a permanent address.

Assigning Static IP Addresses the Smart Way

Earlier you but start assigning static IP addresses left and correct, let'due south go over some basic network hygiene tips that volition salve you lot from a headache down the road.

First, check what the IP pool available on your router is. Your router will take a full puddle and a pool specifically reserved for DHCP assignments. The full puddle available to dwelling routers is typically x.0.0.0 through ten.255.255.255 or 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255 . Then, inside those ranges a smaller pool is reserved for the DHCP server, typically around 252 addresses in a range like 10.0.0.two through 10.0.0.254. Once yous know the general puddle, you should use the following rules to assign static IP addresses:

Never assign an address that ends in .0 or .255 every bit these addresses are typically reserved for network protocols. This is the reason the example IP address pool above ends at .254.
Never assign an address to the very beginning of the IP pool, due east.g. 10.0.0.1 every bit the start address is e'er reserved for the router. Even if you've changed the IP address of your router for security purposes, we'd notwithstanding propose against assigning a computer.
Never assign an address outside of the full available pool of individual IP addresses. This means if your router's pool is ten.0.0.0 through ten.255.255.255 every IP you assign (keeping in mind the prior two rules) should fall inside that range. Given that in that location are nearly 17 meg addresses in that puddle, we're certain you can find one you like.

Some people prefer to simply utilize addresses outside of the DHCP range (due east.g. they exit the 10.0.0.2 through 10.0.0.254 block completely untouched) merely we don't experience strongly enough about that to consider it an outright dominion. Given the improbability of a dwelling user needing 252 device addresses simultaneously, it's perfectly fine to assign a device to 1 of those addresses if you'd adopt to proceed everything in, say, the x.0.0.x cake.

RELATED: How and Why All Devices in Your Home Share 1 IP Address