Specifying the Static IP Address

You're now just about ready to assign a static IP address to your Windows 7 computer. The last bit of information you need to know is the IP address to use. This is important because you don't want to use an address that your router has already assigned to another computer. The easiest way to do this is to choose an address outside of the DHCP server's range. For example, if you configured the DHCP server to assign addresses from the range 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.150, an address such as 192.168.0.50 or 192.168.0.200 will work. (Remember, too, not to use the address assigned to your router.)

TIP It's probably a good idea to check your router's DHCP table to see which addresses it has assigned. See your router documentation to learn how to do this.

With an IP address in hand, follow these steps to assign it to a network connection in Windows 7:

1. Open the Network Connections window, as described earlier.
2. Select the connection you want to work with.
3. In the taskbar, click Change Settings of This Connection. (You can also right-click the connection and then click Properties.) Windows 7 display's the connection's Properties dialog box.
4. In the Networking tab's list of items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
5. Click Properties to display the Properties dialog box for Internet Protocol Version 4.
6. Click to activate the Use the Following IP Address option.
7. Use the IP Address box to type the IP address you want to use.
8. Use the Subnet Mask box to type the IP addresses for the subnet mask. (Windows 7 should fill this in for automatically; the most common value is 255.255.255.0.)
9. Use the Default Gateway box to type the IP address of your network's router.
10. Use the Preferred DNS Server and Alternate DNS Server boxes to type the IP addresses of your ISP's DNS servers. Figure below shows a completed version of the dialog box.
    
    
    
11. Click OK to return to the connection's Properties dialog box.
12. Click Close.