Windows 7: Assigning fixed IP addresses to devices in home network

G'day,

I have a home network comprising of:



1 x desktop
3 x laptop
1 x network printer

During bootup, these devices are assigned dynamic IP addresses, typically 192.168.1.x, where x is typically between 1 and 7.

I have a network printer, which has some functionality to scan and save documents to a shared folder on any of these devices, as shown below:



Referring to the image above, the problem I have is that the computer called COLIN-PC is assigned a dynamic IP address when it boots. For example, last night it was 192.168.1.4 and the scan functionality worked perfectly as expected, since I set it up for that IP. This evening, its IP address is 192.168.1.7, and as a consequence the scan doesn't work until I change the IP address in the panel in the image shown above. I want to avoid doing this each time.

What is the easiest method for me to assign fixed IP addresses to all the devices in my network? Do you need any more information from me to help solve this?

Thanks,
Golden

Golden, Most routers have the capability of reserving IP's for the devices on the network.

You can also go into networks and your adapter can be set to a static IP which should be fine.

But, I find that the router is the easiest way to reserve IP's.

Rich

Besides using static IP's you can also use DHCP reservation for those, most routers have a setting for this.

That way you can keep DHCP turned on so you would still have automatic IP assignments when you plug something in or connect wirelessly.

For static IP's on machines you can just go into the IPv4 properties and type in the desired static IP's, DNS servers, default gateway, etc. Or you can do it through the routers settings.

For your printer you will need to use the router and assign IP's per hardware Mac address. For me this is under "Device Info" tab, it will show all the assigned IP's and the Mac addresses for each device.

The settings are different for all routers so it's hard to give you exact information here but there should be another page with a list where you can add Mac addresses and assign static IP's for each device there.

But remember that if you still have DHCP turned on the static IP's will need to be outside the range of the DHCP server IP's. So if your DHCP range is 192.168.0.2-192.168.100 then use static IP's starting at 192.168.101>

This is how the IP Address reservation looks like in my Netgear Router under LAN IP Setup.



Go through your router Manual and set-up the IP address reservation.

Fella's - thanks very much for your suggestions. I think I'll try and crack the router method first. If I have trouble with that, I'll try and use the fixed IP from the network adapter properties within Windows.

So, having perused the router manual (Billion BiPAC 7401VGP R3), I tried to find the equivalent settings as shown in jumanji's screen capture - not sure if I have actually seen it. I don't know enough about routers and networking to know whether I'm looking at the right thing, but i think its either pg. 25 or pg. 57..........I'm not enirely sure. perhaps I should boot up all the devices this evening, and then examine the router pages to see more detail?

I have attched the manual if anyone would like to have a squiz at it.

Regards,
Golden

Decided to try via the adapter settings. This is what I specified so far for one device:

Update:

With Zero10's guidance I used the adapter properties to assign static IP addresses to each device as per example below. The trick is to use the same gateway and preferred dns IP address.

Thanks for all your help. Everything works perfectly.

Who the heck is Zero10? Are we fixing things with PM's these days?

I guess these instructions didn't work? You did exactly what I explained here.

There is no real trick to that by the way, this is standard procedure.

For static IP's on machines you can just go into the IPv4 properties and type in the desired static IP's, DNS servers, default gateway, etc. Or you can do it through the routers settings.

The reason I mentioned the router method was because most printers don't have a static IP set up page so in those cases you would need to use the router for that.

Do you have a problem with me fixing it via PM?

You are right, they are exactly the same steps, but my lack of knowledge about networking, and specifically router settings, at the time meant I didn't comprehend exactly how to tackle this. Zero10 guided me through it, and provided some useful explanation of how to find gateways, and some of the terminology etc. etc.

its standard practice for team members to pm each other, that way we can say what we like