Generally when most people search for this term “how to change your ip address”, most of them are looking to change their internet IP or public ip address which is allocated to them.
Possibly for the following reasons.
- to hide their internet traces
- simply to hide their current location to avoid tracking
- Or access content online which is geo restricted. Eg access US Netflix library from other continent
Before we dive in further, let’s discuss some of the terminology and have a basic understanding of how networking works.
Internet or World Wide Web
A massive connectivity of networks and devices. Where your cloud data, cloud server, this website, your home network, your office network is part of. Literally, anything which is online, is part of the internet.
History of internet from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
External IP Address / Public IP Address
Typically issued by your internet service provider. A unique address at this point of time which is only available to you. This is the IP address which you are looking to change or hide, aka your online ID.
If you are a home user, generally your ISP will issue a dynamic IP Address to your router. Unless you requested for static IP as an addon, or specifically bundled in your subscription plan.
Router
A device which is considered to be the middle man between the ISP and your devices. It manages the network traffic among the ISP and internal devices, such as your home PC, mobile phones which is connected to the router.
Internal IP Address / Local IP Address
Internal IP addresses are typically issued by your home / office router via DHCP server in the router. Every device which is connected to the home / office network will get an IP Address. Generally its dynamic.
As opposed to a public IP, internal IP is hidden from the public view. When the internal devices, such as your mobile phone or computer is linked up to the home router, be it using wifi or lan cable, it receive an internal IP.
To find your internal IP Address, click on the link. It will bring you to a page which allows you to find your own internal router ip address. However, using the same method, you will be able to find your device IP address too.
Internet Service Provider
The company which provides you with internet connectivity and your external IP address. It is also the same company which you pay the monthly internet subscription to.
Click here to find your existing external IP address
How the internet works
Above is a brief image of how the internet works. If you notice, the network router is in both the internal and external network. The small circles are the internal devices, eg your mobile phone, smart TV, computer and the router issues an internal ip address to each of the device. All the internal devices, regardless of their internal ip addresses issued, will have the same external ip address.
- One device, the computer, requested to head over to say fixcomputeronlinehelp.com It passed the request to the router, which passed it to the ISP and connects to the website.
- The website returns the requested data (webpage) to the ISP and back to the router. The router inspect the data returned and pass it back to the computer.
** This is a “direct” connection, hence the website will know that the data is requested by your existing internet connection as it is tagged to your public ip address.
How to change your IP Address – External IP Address – Method 1
The ISP will issue a dynamic external ip address which is leased to you for a period of time. This duration is determined by the ISP.
One easy way to update your external ip address will be to power off your router and modem or gateway device. Try to power them off for at least 2 hours. And turn them on after that. your IP address should have changed. If not, try to power off the router and modem for a longer duration, probably overnight. Else you might need to contact your ISP to change your public IP address
** Prior to powering the network devices off, you can check your external ip address here. Visit the page use the links to find your external IP address and refresh the pages again. If the IP address listed is not the same address, it has been updated to a new external ip address.
How to change your IP Address – Public IP Address – Method 2
Connect your device to a different network. Instead of connecting to your home network, connect to a public wifi network, such as cafe or library, etc. Your external IP address will be changed immediately.
How to change your IP Address – Internal IP Address
Changing the internal ip address is a lot easier than changing external ip address and can be done almost immediately.
** There is a risk that the device will lose all network connectivity if you decided to manually change IP Address ** DO NOT Proceed if you feel uncomfortable modifying your computer network ip address settings! **
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- Before we start, find out your own computer local ip address first.
- Look at the bottom right of your taskbar, where the clock is. and try to locate either the ethernet or wifi icon. If its hidden, click on the small arrow to expand the hidden icons.
- Right click on network icon, either the ethernet icon or the wifi icon, and the following image should appear
- And select “Open Network and Internet Settings“
- Another window, “Network Status” will appear, from there, select “Change Adapter Options” (image below)
- A network connection window will appear. Depending on the existing connection, select the correct connection type.
- Another window will appear, and click on “Properties“
- Another window will appear, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
- And generally you should see that all settings are set to automatic. (image below). If not, take a photo using your photo phone or screenshot to ensure that you have the original settings if you need to revert.
- Another reminder – any wrong network configuration from here could break all network configuration. Proceed with care!
- From here, click on “use the following IP Address“
- Using the example in step 1, the local computer IP address is “192.168.1.15” Your IP Address might differs. If you notice, the IP address is always divided into 4 portions, separated by a dot.
- Hence at this step, we will change only the last set of number. In this case, you can change it to “192.168.1.220“. A number between 1 to 254. Generally 210- 230 should be unused. Depends on network configuration. If unsure, refer to your office IT or the person that configured the network. Alternatively, if you have a set of settings provided by your IT department, use them.
- For subnet mask, follow accordingly, which will be 255.255.255.0
- For default gateway, key in the number 192.168.1.1
- You should notice that you will need to manually set the DNS server too. in this case, under preferred DNS server, key in the default gateway, which is “192.168.1.1”
- You may refer the alternate DNS server empty.
- Click “OK” and this closes the IPv4 Properties windows. and you will be brought back to “Local area connection Properties“. Click on “OK” to close the window. Once done, click on “Details” you should see the IP address which you just keyed in.
** Take note, all the IP address settings provided from step 19 to 22 (in purple) are based on the guide “how to find out your ip address“.
** Your exact default gateway, subnet mask, IP Address might be different ** If you are unable to get any internet connection, set the settings back to “Auto”. You should get back your internet connectivity. In this case, try to change the ip address again in step 20.