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How to Configure a Static IP Address in Windows Vista
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If you’ve had the opportunity to play around with a beta version of Windows Vista you’ve probably noticed that many of the day to day admin tasks have slightly changed or have been moved from where you’ve been accustomed to.
It’s been over 5 years now since Windows XP was released and that’s a lot of time for habits to form on how to access things.
Well, it’s time to retrain our brains to the intricacies of Windows Vista. Today I’m going to cover how to statically configure a network card’s IP by using the windows GUI.
Configuring a Static IP in Vista
Click on the start orb to open a list of programs and content. The start menu has been replaced by the “start orb” which still gives you the same functionality as the start button from previous OS versions, but consumes less screen real estate.
Right click on “Network” and go to properties. That opens the “Network and Sharing Center” which is your central office for anything pertaining to (just as it says) networking or sharing resources.
On the left hand column you want to click on “Manage Network Connections.”
This opens the Network Connections Window which you will find familiar to Windows 2000/XP. It will list all of your NICs or Wireless Connections.
Right click and go to properties of the connection you would like to statically assign. You will now be prompted for an administrative password. This is part of Microsoft’s new User Account Control (UAC) which will help unauthorized changes to your systems.
Once you have authenticated you will see the properties of the selected network connection.
The properties screen is very similar to what you’ve seen in the past, but one thing you will likely notice is by default Windows Vista supports IPv6. If you’re on a corporate or government network that is running IPv6 you can fill in your IP information there.
Otherwise, you will select Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and click properties. Now you will be able to enter in your IP, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and DNS addresses and click OK.
Close the Network Connections Window and you’re running with your new IP.
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17 Responses to “How to Configure a Static IP Address in Windows Vista”
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Dan Says:
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 am
You should add that after doing this Vista automatically changes the network to Public, which means you can’t acess it from other computers. You have to then click ‘customize’ in the Network and Sharing Center then change it to ‘Private’.
manage Says:
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 am
how does give ip add in vista
sow Says:
September 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
very good
B&J Says:
October 16th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Very helpful thank you
el Says:
October 27th, 2008 at 3:42 am
i no how to get here..but its clear the guide u give..however i can connect to the network but cannot connect onto the internet….my IP comes up as 169.254….can anybody please help??
Gary Eimerman Says:
October 28th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hi el-
It sounds like you do not have DHCP setup on your router or network. The 169.254.xxx.xxx is from Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) which is something Vista and XP machines have enabled on them. If you have your IP set to obtain automatically and it is unable to find a DHCP server to obtain an IP from then it will revert to your alternative settings and then to APIPA.
If you do not have DHCP setup on your router/network but you know your IP settings for your gateway, subnet mask, and DNS Servers than you can follow the article and manually configure your IP address.
gurpreet singh Says:
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:05 am
assigning an ip to vista is very much easy but after assinging it is communicate with network but not communicate with that pcs which have vista oreating system on network so vista to vista communication is problem after assinging it automatic ip address its communicating smoothly. is there any body have the solution of that
Gary Eimerman Says:
November 24th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
When you’re configuring a static IP address you need to make sure that your are properly configuring the IP on the correct subnet, your gateway is correct, your DNS is correct and that you’re IP does not conflict with any other hosts on that same subnet. That’s one of the great things about DHCP; once you’ve got DHCP configured properly it handles this for all of the hosts on a network.
My suggestion would be to watch our TCP/IP training videos which are available under the free training videos section. These should help you better understand TCP/IP and what is being configured when you set a static ip.
Alex Says:
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 am
when you give help on a specific product you should actualy try following your instructions. Vista for example does not show a subnet mask – it shows a subnet prefix length. Also if your giving help do an example.
Gary Eimerman Says:
May 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Hi Alex-
Thanks for the feedback. This article was written back on a release candidate of Vista over 2 years ago so some of the labels may have changed with the final release. Thanks for pointing that out.
We’ll be heading to TechEd this week so I’m not sure if my schedule allows for it, but I’ll add a quick video to my todo list.
Thanks.
Drazor Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 10:51 am
This all works well and good.
but could someone please explain this?
after setting up my static ip and forwarding the ports needed. when i restart my pc my ip changes and it goes back to “auto find IP”
ow can i make it so the static IP is constant even after a restart?
Gary Eimerman Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Hi Everyone-
Alex, in response to your question about the subnet mask vs. subnet prefix length I’m not sure if that is just because we’re using different versions of Vista or we’re looking at two different spots, but in the US version of Vista Business and Vista Enterprise it is labeled Subnet Mask.
Drazor, couple things I’d look into. 1) make sure there aren’t any group policies that are being applied to force Obtain an IP Address Automatically. 2) Make sure that after clicking ok you check you IP address to see if the static IP is truly being applied. Other than that I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I’ll ask around to see if anyone else has run into that issue before.
Video Coming Soon!! need to re-install my VM and I’ll get it posted after the long weekend.
Gary Eimerman Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Video is now live. Let me know if you still have questions.
Rameoj Says:
June 28th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Nice…. ty..,,,,, very usefull
Dany Says:
June 30th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I have the same problem as Drazor.
Running Vista Ultimate on two computers, desktop and laptop.
On the desktop computer I installed a USB WLAN adapter and configured the network with a static-IP. Pressed APPLY then OK. Everything worked fine until a reboot. After a reboot IP changes to 169.254.xxx.xxx, but subnet and gateway are still as I wanted them to be. Going back to the settings shows everything correct as I typed it before rebooting, but the IP in reality is 169.254.xxx.xxx. Only way to get it functioning again is to change it back to DHCP, APPLY and then OK and then go back and write in the static IP settings again, APPLY and OK. Then it will work again until next reboot.
Same situation on my laptop with a integrated WLAN card.
I solved this by making a .bat script in the STARTUP folder that forces the settings every time Vista Ultimate boots. The code that it’s running is:
netsh interface ip set address name=”WLAN” static 192.168.2.3 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1 1
Works great, but I still don’t understand what is causing the original problem.
Gary Eimerman Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 9:46 am
That is so strange. It’s almost like your NICs are resetting every time you reboot. The 169.254.x.x IP address you’re getting is an automatic private IP Windows will assign when the NIC is set to dynamic IP and no dhcp server can be found.
I’m goin got ask around and see if anyone has ever run into this problem before.
Have you tried to set your static IP address in the alternate configuration tab? I’m wondering if that will remain after the reboot and with the network not having a DHCP server it will fail-over to that IP. It’s not a fix, but might be a work-a-round.
Dany Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Just wanted to add that this problem does not occur on these same computers when I use wired LAN and static IP. Only occurs with WLAN