How to manually set an IP address (Windows Vista)

1. Click on the Start circle in the bottom left corner of the screen. From the menu that appears, click on Control Panel.

2. Click on the option marked Classic View to the left of the Control Panel window that appears.

3. Double click on the icon marked Network and Sharing Center.

4. Click on the option marked Manage network connections to the left of the window.

5. Right click on the connection to which the IP address needs to be set. In most cases this will be either Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection. From the menu that appears, click on Status.

6. Click on the Details button in the new window that appears.

7. A new window filled with technical information will appear showing the IP address and other settings that are currently assigned to the network connection. Make a note of:

• IPv4 IP Address
• IPv4 Subnet Mask
• IPv4 Default Gateway
• IPv4 DNS Server

Click on Close.

8. Click on the Properties button. If a warning message appears, click on Continue.

9. In the new window that appears, click on the text marked Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then click on the Properties button.

10. In the new window that appears, click on the circle button marked Use the following IP address: and fill in the form below accordingly:

• IP address: This is in four sections in the form of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. The first three sections must be the same as the old address, but the fourth section can be any number between 2 and 253 as long as it hasn't been taken by another device. If the old address was 192.168.0.4 then the new address could be 192.168.0.60 for example.
• Subnet mask: This is almost always 255.255.255.0 but needs to be set the same as before.
• Default gateway: This is the address of your router and needs to be set the same as before. It could be 192.168.0.1 for example.
• Preferred DNS server: This is usually the address of your router and needs to be set the same as before. It could be 192.168.0.1 for example.
• Alternate DNS server: This can be left blank in most cases.

After filling in these options, click on OK.

11. Click on the Close button.

12. Click on the Close button and click the cross in the top right corner of any remaining windows to return to the desktop.