Many people who take their notebook from home to the office may run into a problem of having to use a dynamic IP address at home and a static at the office. There is a way to have both settings in your configuration so you do not need to change them each time you change locations.
Go to your network connection properties by right clicking My Network Places and selecting Properties. Then right click your Local Area Connection icon and select Properties again. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on Properties. You will see a window similar to the following.
Click on the Alternate Configuration tab. Note that if you do not have Obtain an IP address automatically selected you will not see this tab
Enter your static IP information in the boxes and click OK.
One side effect of using this type of configuration is that it will take a little longer for Windows to completely load since it will first look for an IP address from a DHCP server before using the alternate configuration.
Related Tips:
How to Find Your IP Address
The Difference Between Static and Dynamic IP Addresses
What is Ethernet?
Advanced IP Scanner
Windows XP Network Diagnostics Tool
Reinstall TCP/IP on Windows XP
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