What Is Static IP Address, Compare with Dynamic IP Address and How To Set For Windows and Linux?

IP addresses are the core mechanism of Computer networks. The IP address is used to specify the host to communicate and transmit data. There are two types of IP address configuration mechanism. Dynamic and Static. In this tutorial, we will examine the static IP address configuration.

Static IP Address

Static means stable or not changeable, fixed, etc. Static IP addresses set to the host or interface and do not change during time. An IP address generally set manually. Every IP address can be used as static or dynamic there is no restriction. The setting or configuration type makes it static or dynamic.

Dynamic IP Address

The dynamic IP address is set with the DHCP protocol. DHCP means Dynamic Host Control Protocol and as its name suggest it is used to set network related configuration dynamically.

Static IP Address Use Cases

We can use static IP addresses for different cases.

Servers
Web Server’s must use static IP address because
Mail Server
Web Services
Network Devices
Routers
Switches
Security Devices

Private Static IP Address (Home or Intranet)

IP addresses categorized as Private IP Address or Public IP Address. Private IP addresses only used in internal networks like the intranet, home network, ISP network, etc. Private IP addresses can not be used on the internet. We can use all private IP addressed as static. Home routers generally use 192.168.1.1 as the static IP address for the home network. Example Private Static IP Addresses:

192.168.1.1
192.168.2.1
172.16.1.1
10.10.10.10

Public Static IP Address (Internet)

Public IP addresses can be used as static too. As stated previously these IP addresses can be routed over the internet. We can set public IP Addresses as static as Private IP addresses. Especially web servers, DNS servers, applications servers will have the static IP address. Here are some of the well know Public Static IP Addresses:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

LEARN MORE DHCP Reservation For Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 and Benefits

Set Static IP Address For Linux

We can set a static IP address for Linux in different ways. In this part, we will set a static IP address for Linux from the command line.

Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Kali

First, we will open the interfaces configuration file which holds the network interface configuration.

$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Then we will set iface ens33 as static and provide information likemIP address, netmask, network, gateway etc.

auto ens33
iface ens33 inet static
   address 192.168.1.10
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   network 192.168.1.0
   broadcst 192.168.0.255
   gateway 192.168.1.1
   dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8

Fedora, CentOS, RedHat

In rpm based distributions like Fedora, CentOS, RedHat network configuration is stored in network-scripts directory with the name of the network interface. In this example, we will set a static IP address for em1 interface.

$ nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1

We will set information like IPADDR, NETMASK, BROADCAST, GATEWAY etc.

UUID="e88f1292-1f87-4576-97aa-bb8b2be34bd3"
NM_CONTROLLED="yes"
HWADDR="D8:D3:85:AE:DD:4C"
BOOTPROTO="static"
DEVICE="em1"
ONBOOT="yes"
IPADDR=192.168.1.2
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
NETWORK=192.168.1.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1

Set Static IP Address For Windows

In Windows operating systems we will use standard network configuration to set the static IP address. Open the following screens. Control Panel->Network Connections -> Double click LAN or Internet Connection-> Click Properties .Enable Use the following IP address