How to Configure IP Address in Windows 10

1) First right-click the network icon on the lower right corner of the taskbar area and click on Open Network and Sharing Center.

Click on Open Network and Sharing Center

2) Once Network and Sharing Center appears, go ahead to click on Change adapter settings.

3) Here you will be shown those wirelesses ( (Wi-Fi) and wired (Ethernet) adapters installed on your computer, and you can just right-click the connection you would like to change its network settings, and click on Properties. In this case, I right click my Wi-Fi adapter and click on Properties.

4) In the Network Connection Properties window, tick on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.

Note: If your computer is connected to the IPv6 network, you can select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) to configure IPv6 related network settings, but it’s not covered here.

In general, there are two ways for configuring those network-related settings, which are manual and automatic ways but the common approach nowadays is through the automatic approach.

Automatic IP Address Assignment

If you have a DHCP server configured on your router or you have a dedicated DHCP server in your network, you can configure your computer to get an IP address and other network information automatically by selecting Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.

Manual IP Address Assignment

If you like to do manual network configuration, you have to click on the Use the following IP addresses and Use the following DNS server addresses options, and then key in the IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway, and DNS servers details. Please that the IP address of your computer must be unique in your network because none of the 2 computers in the same network can share the same IP address that will trigger the IP address conflict problem.

Note: Default gateway is a router that can route the traffic to the other network or Internet, usually it’s LAN IP address of your home router. DNS server is an application server that can translate URL to IP address so that you could browse websites without a problem. Check with your ISP on which DNS servers you should use. I

Note: If you have a laptop and use it at home and office, and it uses static IP at home and the IP assigned by the DHCP server at the office, you can make use of the alternate configuration to set the IP address and network information for these 2 different networks.

First, set Obtain an IP address and DNS automatically on the General tab as according to what I specified above so that the laptop will be assigned IP addresses automatically at the office. After that, click the Alternate Configuration tab, select the User configured option and key in your home network’s static IP and other network information. By setting this, when there is no IP information assigned due to no DHCP server at home, this alternate configuration will be applied automatically, so that you don’t have to spend time on configuring IP manually every time at home.