Setting a Static IP
Disclaimer: This tutorial only shows how to set a static ip for a computer with Windows OS (7, 8, 8.1, 10) installed. It is also recommended you do this on a wired connection to your router.
Have you ever wanted to host a private server for you and your friends to play on, but don’t want to pay for a server yourself? Well one of the easiest things to do is to host your own server on your computer, but that requires a few steps first. The first step when it comes to setting up a server is to set a static internet protocol (IP). This is required so that the IP you eventually hand out to friends doesn’t change.
One of the first steps to setting a static IP is pretty simple. On your Windows computer you’re going to want to launch the command prompt which is kind of like a terminal. An easy way to launch this is to right-click on the windows button at the bottom-left of the taskbar. This will open a menu where you will select command prompt (Note: if this doesn’t work try searching for the command prompt in the windows menu).
This will open up the command prompt. To find the information we’re looking for type “ipconfig” (without the quotes) This will display some information. What we want to write down is the “Subnet Mask” and “Default Gateway”
Now we want to open up the control panel. Search for "Control Panel" in your windows menu and open it.
The next few steps we want to do are as follows: “Network and Internet” > “Network and Sharing Center” > “Change adapter settings”
Here we will right-click on our ethernet adapter and select “Properties”.
This will open up another menu of items. The only thing we want is called, “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP /IPv4)”. Select that and then click “Properties” again.
Finally this is where you will enter those pieces you wrote down earlier. Lucky for you I color coded them in the screenshots. In the “IP address:” field you will enter the first three numbers of the default gateway, so it should read, “192.168.1.X” and the "X" is where you will pick a number between 1 and 254 (Note: it cannot be 1 since that is the default gateway of the router). For the “DNS server addresses:” you can put Google’s public DNS servers which are “8.8.8.8” and “8.8.4.4”.
Once everything is inputted correctly you can click “OK” and close all the windows you opened. Windows may run a troubleshooter, but if you followed all the steps correctly then it will come up with nothing.
In conclusion this is only the first step into hosting a server for you and your friends, but it is the easiest. Setting a static IP also helps identify the devices on your local network since it’ll show the IP address assigned to a device.
