Setting static IP

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 19:40

If I give my laptop (Win 7 Ultimate) a static IP to work with my home router, I'm assuming this will prevent it working on other connections such as friends & family unless I revert the IP settings to 'Obtain an automatic address'?

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 19:46

I was going to choose a static address such as .10 which is unlikely to be used on the other networks I might find myself on, but would the DNS server address not be different in each location though, thus preventing me connecting anyway unless I revert to automatic addressing?

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 20:48

Well according the an ipconfig my gateway and DNS address is 192.168.0.1 which I guess would be the same whichever broadband network I'm on? (apologies if that's glaringly stupid but this kinda stuff isn't my strong point!)

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 21:45

How do I find my actual DNS address? The guide I've been looking at on PortForward says to check the router status page but I can't see it on there.

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 21:52

Yeah but it lists it as 192.168.0.1 which is just the router, do I not need to know the actual DNS server address Sky uses? I've been following this guide: PortForward

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 22:02

Nice one, cheers. This stuff really goes right over my head, been trying to make sense of it all but it's frying my brain!

So I can just chuck those in as the DNS servers, gateway is the router IP, then my laptop's IP is 192.168.0.x yeah?

I'm most likely to be online at my Olds' house when I drop in to see them, they're not with Sky so it'll be easiest to just revert back to Auto-config when I'm there yeah?

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 22:09

bremen1874 said:
Why do you want a static IP in the first place?

As mentioned above you could give yourself a fixed IP by setting up an IP reservation against your MAC address in the router. You could then leave everything on automatic settings.

It's for uTorrent, so I can forward a specific port on my router.

How easy is it to configure that in the router?

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 22:16

I think I've found out how to do it in LAN IP Setup > Address Reservations. It lists the devices currently connected and their current IP's & MAC's, and will allow you to reserver them. I take it this means that each time that MAC hits the router, the router will give it the reserved IP?

uTorrent can use random ports, but you can also specify a particular port, then open it in the router config. Again most of the settings in uTorrent go over my head but I've read it can improve speeds

Big Chris · 11 Oct 2011 at 22:35

Christ, does that mean I've actually understood some of this...?!

Big Chris · 12 Oct 2011 at 08:45

Yeah I managed to work out how to set the IP reservations last night so cheers for the assistance guys, no doubt I'll be updating this thread if/when it all goes knockers-up and no one can get on the internet!