Change Your IP Address

How do I change my IP address?" and "Can I change my IP address?" are probably the most commonly asked questions. Please attempt the following then. Before trying any other methods to change your IP address, try turning off (or unplugging the power of) your Cable/DSL modem for five minutes. In many cases this will change your IP address. However, if that does not change your IP address, leave your modem off for 8 hours (overnight works well) instead of 5 minutes. Hopefully this will result in an IP address change. If the above does not result in your IP address changing, please look below for instructions on how to change your IP address another way. Unfortunately, you wont always be able to get your IP address to change, because it is ultimately determined by your ISP's DHCP configuration (when you have a dynamically assigned IP address.)

Step1

Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of your desktop screen.

Step2

Click on "Run".

Step3

Type in "command" and hit OK. You should now have a Windows Command Prompt on the screen.

Step4

Type "ipconfig /release" without the quotation marks, then hit the Enter key.

Step5

Type "exit" without the quotation marks and the command prompt will disappear.

Step6

Click START, then click on "Network Places", "Network Connections" or "My Network Places". Different versions of windows will have it worded differently. There may also be a shortcut to this on your desktop. If there is an icon that says one of these three phrases, you may double click it instead.

Step7

You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something similar to that.

Step8

Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"

Step9

Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab

Step10

Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab

Step11

Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until I fill the area up).

Step12

Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.

Step13

Hit the "Ok" button.

Step14

Hit the "Ok" button again.

Step15

You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.

Step16

Right-click on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.

Step17

Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings.

Step18

This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically".

Step19

Click "Ok".

Step20

Click "Ok" again.

Step21

You now have a new IP address. Congratulations on learning how to change your IP address