The Internet-Protocol Address also commonly referred to as the IP address is unique to each user and more specifically the network from which the user is browsing. It basically defines the unique identification and location addressing of each of the user that is connected to the internet.
Sometimes, it comes as a requirement to change your IP address in case your IP has been attacked by a malware, or you want access to some of the restricted websites based on your location or you want to register for more than one account on your website.
For all the Windows users, you can change your IP from your Control Panel section, but this process involves you to navigate through several Windows and dialog boxes. The other easy way turns out to be directly changing the IP address from Command Prompt, if your don’t mind writing few instructions in it.
By using the netsh command you can change your IP and also configure different aspects of your network connections within Windows. For this, open the Command Prompt Window with Administrative access. For users of Windows 8.1 and above, right-click on the Start Menu and choose Command Prompt with Admin credentials. In the earlier Windows versions search for ‘command prompt’ in the Start Menu. Right click on the result and select “Run as Administrator
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CHECK YOUR NETWORK INFORMATION
Before you begin with changing your IP Address, we recommend you to check the full name of the network for the particular type of interface you wish to have.
Here just type the command:
netsh interface ipv4 show config
Scroll through until you get to see the interface you want to alter. This example will show the modification of the Wi-Fi interface here named as “Wi-Fi“.
Your Windows will assign other default names too like “Ethernet”, “Local Area Connection” and others.
Check for the one you are looking for and note it down exactly as it is either in your personal notes or Notepad.
CHANGING THE IP, SUBNET MASK AND DEFAULT GATEWAY
For the interface you choose, you can now change the IP, Subnet Mask and its Default Gateway. For this, you have to put a command in the following syntax:
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="YOUR INTERFACE NAME" static IP_ADDRESS SUBNET_MASK GATEWAY
So in our case the command will be:
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="Wi-Fi" static 192.168.3.8 255.255.255.0 192.168.3.1
The command will take the following actions:
- It will use the interface name “Wi-Fi”
- Set the IP address to 192.168.3.1
- Set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0
- Set the default gateway to 192.168.3.1
With your static IP, if you plan to automatically switch to any other IP using your DCHP server, like your router, you can make use of the following command:
netsh interface ip4 set address name=”YOUR INTERFACE NAME” source=dhcp
