Why change your IP Address?
The fundamental question is why you would want to change your IP address in the first place. There are a number of reasons why you would want to do this. Please see below the top reasons why you would want to change your IP Address:-
- In case you face a site ban based on your IP.
- You want to change your identity on the network.
- To overcome restrictions based on an IP address.
- If you want to register more than one account on a website.
- To overcome online bans and country location restrictions generally placed on video contents.
Whatever the reason changing your IP address is a personal choice that is specific to the individual. There are numerous Pro’s and Con’s to changing your IP Address, it will not improve your network performance, as even after you change your IP you are still in the same subnet mask provided by your ISP. Please see below various ways that you can change your IP address.
How to change your IP Address?
WINDOWS: One of the easiest way’s to change your IP is by shutting down the computer/modem/router for a span of at least 12 hours, and when you turn it on it will automatically switch to a different IP address. Though this might only work if your ISP have a short lease time. IP lease time means a time span for which you are assigned a particular IP address. This may vary from a span of a few hours to months and even years in very rare cases.
If you don’t want to wait so long, you can do it yourself by following the below mentioned steps:
- Open command prompt.
- Type ipconfig /release and press enter.
- Click Start > Control Panel > and then open Network Connections.
- Right click on the active Local Area Connection and select Properties.
- Double-click the Internet Protocol.
- Click on Use the following IP address tab.
- Enter any IP like 123.111.111.10
- Press ok and the Subnet Mask section will show default Addresses.
- Double tap ok.
- Go to Local area connection again and Right click on it and choose Properties
- Hit twice on the Internet Protocol.
- Select the option, Obtain an IP address automatically
- Click OK twice.
- Now go to IPaddressfinder.net and check if your IP address has changed or not.
You can also assign an IP manually, but this involves a risk that your ISP might ban you from connecting to the internet. In order to change your IP manually you’ll have to enter an IP which is similar to the one displayed in the command prompt window. Leave the first half of the IP unchanged and only manipulate the second half of it. For instance, if your current IP is 75.111.122.123, change it to 75.111.122.124. You’ll also have to enter the Subnet, Gateway and DNS Server IP addresses manually. If this new IP don’t work there is a possibility that someone else has already been assigned that IP on the ISP network. All You need to do is move on to the next one by changing the last bit and keep trying until you find an unassigned IP. But some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) match up your PC or modem data to the address assigned to you. If both of them don’t match up, it’s impossible to connect no matter what.
MAC The most common way your IP address is provided to you is by manual addressing, you receive them from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and changes automatically via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) depending upon the lease time of your ISP. If the DHCP is used by your ISP your computer is automatically assigned an IP address. In this case you’ll have to contact Your ISP and he might help you with changing your IP. If your ISP or network account is not using DHCP, you can change your IP address manually using the following steps:
- Select Apple menu, go to System Preferences and then click Network.
- Click network port configuration from the list at the left.
- Click Configure, and choose Manually, and enter the address followed by the subnet mask, router, and Domain Name System (DNS) server address and hit enter.
And you can try your luck to see if you can get an unassigned IP address.
The above mentioned steps are not very simple for those with very little technical knowledge.
So here are some other very simple ways, which also might help you to change your IP if you don’t know much about this technical stuff:
You can simply go to any cafe or library or any place where you can get a Wi-Fi connection, all you have to do is connect your laptop with the network and bingo.
One more option is, that you can open the settings on your mobile phone and then go to the tethering and hotspot option and you can create a hotspot using your mobile phone and connect your device with it and there you go.
Verdict
It becomes harder for hackers or virus/trojans/malware/worm to target you if you change your IP address.
Although, a disadvantage of changing your IP is that you might be assigned an IP from an old server having old routers which might lead to slow internet speed.