Change IP?

[Loyalty4Life]

If I wanted to, could I change the IP on my computer? Can it be done? If so, how do you do it?

Thanks for any help you can offer. :)

[Unit]

You can change your IP. Its mostly useless except to setup a private network or on a LAN. It usually fails on the internet, if you set a random IP as your IP. This is because your ISP will not know about your change and so would not know how to properly route the packets from/to you.

We need to know about what OS you are running to properly give directions to change it. Be aware, if you change your IP incorrectly and you dont know how to fix it, it may be too troublesome as you wont be able to come here to remedy the problem!

[Loyalty4Life]

I run Windows ME, and I'm looking to change my IP for the internet. Not for a network or LAN. :)

[Unit]

Then, you may want to talk to your ISP about it. They will be able to help you with your request. I dont want to be blamed for broken networks... and no offense, but how do I know that your intentions are honorable? ;)

[oracleguy]

To change it, unless you want a specific address, just power down and re-start your broadband modem or if you are on dial-up, just disconnect and re-connect.

Usually ISPs charge money for static IP addresses.

[liorean]

IPs on the net aren't free for the taking. The IPs ranges got issued out to various places (companies, governmental institutions, military, universities) early on, and ICANN keeps the list up to date. IPv4 supports (2^8)^4=~4.3 billion various IPs, of which a fair number are nor for the taking because they're standard ones to use in LANs etc. Which means that there's no chance that all computers (servers and clients alike) may get a separate IP. So, there's various sharing systems and such for IPs. Modem users often get one out of a set of IPs at random, for example. Broadband providers often have many users on the same exposed WAN IP (Internet IP) but have separate internal IPs. You're lucky if your ISP give you a single, static IP that you are alone on (like I am on my IP), not to speak of allowing you to change your IP.

All this gives that you can't just change your IP any which way.

[JohnnyPotseed]

Are you on broadband or dial-up? IP addresses are mapped as per your MAC address which is a unique hexidecimal number burned into a modem or NIC by the manufacturer. Your computer sends a request for an IP to the DHCP server with the MAC addy encapsulated inside the request packet. If you are on dial-up the IP is assigned on connect and terminated when the session is disconnected. Broadband is the same as any other LAN. The DHCP server checks to see that your MAC addy is a network node, then assigns a lease for a specific amount of time (mine is for 60 days). At the end of the lease the process is repeated and so on...... So no you can not change the IP locally and access the network. It must be mapped to and assigned by the DHCP server.

[Loyalty4Life]

I have a cable moden with Comcast.

[oracleguy]

I have a cable moden with Comcast.

Then what I suggested may reset your IP but it may not. As JohnnyPotseed pointed out, if the lease for your modem hasn't expired, it will just assume whatever IP it had before. And as Unit pointed out, we have to wonder what purpose changing your IP address on your internet connection would serve. If you were doing something... inappropriate... it wouldn't help considering most ISPs keep lease logs for a long time and could look up who was using what IP and when.