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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.
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 The start menu has been replaced by the “start orb” which still gives you the same functionality as the start button from previous OS versions, but consumes less screen real estate.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.
Tags: Certification Help, Microsoft, Static IP Address, TCP/IP, Windows Vista
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.