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How to Configure a Static IP Address in Windows Vista

Posted on November 15th, 2006 by Gary Eimerman 51 Comments »
**Updated with video on 5/28/2009**
Watch Video Now



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 The start menu has been replaced by the “start orb” which still gives you the same functionality as the start button from previous OS versions, but consumes less screen real estate.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.”

vista_ip.jpg

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.

vista_tcpip.jpg

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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51 Responses to “How to Configure a Static IP Address in 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.

  • 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

  • Peter Says:

    July 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am

    Hi thanks very much for your video. I have setup the static IP with all the steps you showed in the vid, but when I type IP config at the end the IPv4 address stays the same for some reason (192.168.2.4). Even though the properties < internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) is registered as 192.168.2.41!

    Please could you help me out! Thanks very much, Pete

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    July 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Hi Peter-

    Do you have multiple NICs in your computer? 2 Wired NICs or a Wired and a Wireless?

    The reason I ask is if you have multiple interfaces its possible to set one to static and one to dynamic. Then when you go to ipconfig make sure that your looking at the correct interface.

    Another thing to check is if you run ipconfig /release it will release your dynamic IP and then you can configure statically. This normally isn’t required, but sometimes it helps to clear everything out and start from scratch.

    Let me know if this helps.

    -Gary

  • Robby Douglas Says:

    July 12th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    Don’t forget to run ipconfig from cmd.exe window to get the default gateway, in case you don’t know what it is. Vista requires an entry. If you leave it blank in the ipV4 settings, it confuses Vista and Vista calls it an “unknown network.”

    There a change I had to make to the IPv4 address. Instead of 192.168.1.1, I had to use 192.168.1.11 – so I could use 192.168.1.1 as the default gateway.

    Also, I had to use my IP’s DNS servers in the appropriate DNS boxes in the “Use these DNS server addresses” fields.

    This may seem intuitive to many, but some people will save some Google time by following these tips.

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    July 13th, 2009 at 8:52 am

    Thanks Robby. All good tips.

  • JIMMY Says:

    July 25th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    What do I use for the last number of the ip address as you used 41 …..It shows DHCP server when i open ipconfig /all…im lost please help ????Do i just type in the ip address as given or something else …in simpler form please thanks well in advance

  • J Says:

    July 25th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    I need help for the ip config address the last number…..do i just type in whats given with the ip address…cause when i type in ip config /all I see the DHCP server do i use that please help

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    July 27th, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Hi Jimmy-

    The last octet or number in this case is the host number and based on the subnet can be any number between 1-254 that isn’t being used by another host(computer or network device) on that same network. I chose 41 because on that network we have DHCP configured and I knew the range on that DHCP Server didn’t include 41 meaning it would never assign another computer to that same IP address.

    To find out the DCHP Server’s range you need to log onto it whether its a physical server or just a home router.

    I strongly suggest reviewing the Free TCP/IP Videos we have here: http://www.trainsignaltraining.com/free-video-training/tcpip-fundamentals-training-videos/

    I think they’ll help clarify even more.

  • Timothy Says:

    August 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    Ok well if u do this and u dont have a router but u have a static ip isnt there a risk of ur ISP banning you from connecting to the internet?

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    August 4th, 2009 at 9:10 am

    If you’re doing this without a router you MUST use the IP address, DNS, and Gateway that your ISP has given you. Not because they’ll ban you, but because the IP’s used in this video/article are for private networks. They won’t be able to talk with your ISP’s network. Most personal internet accounts only come with one public ip, business come with more. This IP is just your public IP, your static IPs on your home computers are going to be your private IPs and the router(or you can setup a computer as a router/NAT server, but this is more complicated) shares the internet access and creates your private network.

    For security reasons as well as lack of public IP addresses available, you don’t want to have public IPs for every computer you have. The private network allows you to build a “safer” zone and almost all routers use a technology called NAT that allows you to funnel that public traffic to the correct system on your local network.

  • Moneta Says:

    September 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    hi, I have a question. what does it mean when you go into command prompt and it says, ipconfig is not recognized internal or external. I dont know what to do. I have a windows vista laptop and one day my wireless connection just stop working. I tried to trouble shoot the best I can. is it possible that I may need a new wireless adapter? because the wireless card is not reading from my 2wire network. but it runs off of Wi-Fi.

  • tim Says:

    September 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    I thought i had a static ip, and i called my isp. They said i had a dynamic ip. I have tried every method to change my IP address NONE of them worked. I don’t know much about this kind of stuff but all i know is i dont have a modem and i have wireless built in to my modem. If anyone has any methods in changing my ip address please tell me. I searched up my ISP up and lots of other people have been having the same problem they call it a “sticky ip” so yea.

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    September 28th, 2009 at 10:18 am

    Hi Moneta-

    I’m afraid that probably isn’t good news. That means your operating system isn’t seeing any network interface devices. It could just be that the device drivers got corrupted, but could also mean the device burnt out.

    I would start by re-installing your device drivers and verify that your wireless card isn’t disable in the device manager or your BIOS(some systems you can enable and disable built-in devices in the BIOS.)

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    September 28th, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Hi Tim-

    In the case where your ISP is giving you a dynamic IP address there is no way you’ll be able to set your public IP to a static address. This has to do with the communication between your modem and your ISP’s routers.

    There are application our there link DynIP that you can install on your computer if you’re looking to be able to always be able to connect to a specific computer remotely.

    If you’re looking to statically assign a private IP just for a local workstation then you’ll need to determine the IP address of your modem’s router as it will be your Gateway IP and you’ll need to know the subnet that your network is setup as. Much of this can be determined either by logging into your modem or going to the cmd prompt and typing ipconfig /all in order to see the settings that you’re getting dynamically.

    Also, check out the Free TCP/IP Videos we have here: http://www.trainsignaltraining.com/free-video-training/tcpip-fundamentals-training-videos/

    That will help get you caught up on the terms and protocols.

  • amir Says:

    October 15th, 2009 at 4:52 am

    hi

    very good help

  • Bob Allister Says:

    October 26th, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    Great training video for setting up an static ip address. One question: I have a wireless network at home and a wired network at the office with a static ip address.

    How can I go back and forth between networks without creating problems for myself?

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    October 29th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    Hi Bob-

    Good news. The wired and wireless network cards in your laptop have their own IP settings. You will be able to setup both with static IPs or one with dynamic one with static if you don’t have static IPs on both networks, but as you move from one network to the other it should route traffic out the device that is connected.

  • Bob Allister Says:

    October 30th, 2009 at 8:52 am

    Gary,

    Thanks again. You are so right. After I setup the static IP at work on our wired network following your video’s directions, I had internet access. When I got home that night and turned on my laptop, I was still able to connect with no fuss to my wireless network. All on auto-pilot.

    IMHO – you have the best training site out there.

    Bob

  • Jono Says:

    November 6th, 2009 at 1:30 am

    Thanks heaps Gary!

    I just set it up on my computer and your step by step guide was awesome! Though when first setting it up my computer froze and i had to restart and reset the numbers again, but other than that it went fine! thanks so much!

    Jono

  • Neha Deep Says:

    November 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am

    It was very good as weel as very helpful for me ………….

  • Neha Deep Says:

    November 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am

    I have installed vista in my laptop and with help of virtual machine I have installed server2008 and I wanted to connect those to so that I can learn a bit on networking as well as

  • Neha Deep Says:

    November 10th, 2009 at 7:02 am

    I configured the static ip to vista as well as server 2008 which is installed in vmbox
    but ip when I am pinging is not reachable .please direct me how to configure ip to both . Do I need to identify DNS server and gateway ip……If yes, what ip should I assign to my systems so that I am able to connect through both the systems…………..

  • Damian Says:

    November 11th, 2009 at 9:23 am

    Hello, I’m having issues sharing files with Vista and Windows 7. Do I have to statictly assign an ip address to the vista computer so windows 7 will see it? Please help

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    November 11th, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Neha-

    My first question is:

    Do you have the firewall on? It’s on by default and a good idea to keep on, but will actually blocks ICMP protocol which is how the ping command communicates. It’s possible they are able to communicate but not ping each other.

    Can you access the server by going to \\servername\ ?
    Are you sure you have the IP’s on the same subnet?

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    November 11th, 2009 at 10:02 am

    Damian-

    No you do not need to have a static IP address to share files. The first place I’d check is to make sure that file and folder sharing and networking discovery is enabled.

    Here is a quick link to do just that in Windows 7:
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Enable-file-and-printer-sharing

  • Mitchell Rouws Says:

    November 26th, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Hi.
    This is great.
    But i have a problem.
    When I’m finished he is saying that i can’t do it because another computer has the same like my computer.
    So i don’t know what i need to do.
    Please help me with a Mail.

    Bye Mitch

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    November 30th, 2009 at 10:32 am

    Hi Michell-

    All that means is the IP address you assigned to you computer has already been assigned to another computer or network device whether you assigned it statically or a DHCP server assigned it. Think of an IP like a social security number or a state ID. Everyone has to be different as it helps others locate and identify others.

    In this case you need to assign an IP that isn’t used on your network. If you have a DHCP server setup on your wireless router or a Server on your network you’ll want to assign an IP outside the scope(usable #s) that is given to that DHCP server. A common scope or range for a DHCP server on a 192.168.1.0 network is 100-149. You’d want to assign your static IPs outside that range.

    Best of luck.

  • mark dizon Says:

    December 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    thank’s..its nice…i alredy solve my problem

  • Robert Simpson Says:

    December 28th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    I’m having what seems to be a unique issue compared to what I’ve found on this particular problem with Vista (Home Premium svp2). When I set static IPs for 2 laptops I have running vista, it will only allow me access to the network but not to the internet. For some reason the only way they are able to access the internet is if I allow the DHCP server to assign an IP address to them. My other 2 computers on the network run XP and have no issues whatsoever…..any suggestions.

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    December 30th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    Hi Robert-

    Sounds to me like when you configure your static IP either your Gateway or more likely your DNS is miss configured. When you have your IPs dynamically set, run “ipconfig /all” in your cmd prompt. See what is listed as the gateway and DNS and try using those IPs for gateway and DNS when you configure statically.

    Let me know if this helps.

  • Jonas Says:

    January 8th, 2010 at 4:10 am

    really awesome guide, Thanks!

  • bob Says:

    January 27th, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    I noticed in ipconfig that my dhcp is not enabled and ip routing also disabled. is this a problem and if how do i fix. thanks bob.

  • Gary Eimerman Says:

    January 27th, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    Hi Bob-

    I’m not exactly sure what you’re having trouble with, but if you don’t have obtain IP automatically enabled, you won’t have DHCP enabled. Static IP addresses disable DHCP so you set your IP address manually instead of via DHCP.

  • Andy Says:

    January 30th, 2010 at 10:26 am

    Have you considered a static ip video for win 7?

  • Kasia Grabowska Says:

    February 1st, 2010 at 7:37 am

    Hi Andy,

    Yes we have! It will be available very soon. Thanks for your suggestion!

    Kasia

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