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An IP (Internet Protocol) address is how the Internet knows who your computer is. For things like troubleshooting, networking, and file-sharing, you may need to know what your IP address is and how to Manual Setup IP Address in Mac. When your Mac is connected to a private network in your home or office, it probably gets what’s called a dynamic IP address. See How to Find Your Mac’s IP Address to find out.
Most people don’t care if their IP address changes or not, so that’s not a problem for them. But dynamic IP addresses won’t work for things like port forwarding, dynamic DNS, or sharing files on a local network from one client to another. Only a static IP address will work in these and other unique situations.
By giving your Mac a static IP address in macOS, you’ll give it a private IP address that won’t change from day to day. Other devices on the same local network will be able to access your Mac, and if you set up port forwarding, the outside world will be able to use some of the services running on your Mac.
How to Manual Setup IP Address in Mac
- Launch ‘System Preferences’ from the Apple menu (or Spotlight)
- Click on the “Network” icon
- In the lower right, click on the ‘Advanced’ button
- In the pulldown menu next to “Configure IPv4” select “Manually” (or DHCP with manual address, if that’s what you need)
- Fill in the IP address, subnet mask, and router, as appropriate to the network you are accessing
- Click ‘OK’
- Click ‘Apply’ to set the change
How do IP addresses work?
An IP address is a unique string of numbers that is given to each computer or local network. These numbers are often chosen at random. Most of the time, it is used as a way to collect, send, and share information from one place to another. There are several numbers in an IP address, which are separated by periods. This is an example of an IP address: IP addresses usually range from 0 to 255. This means that any number between 0 and 255 can be used in an IP address.
IANA, or the Internet of Assigned Numbers Authority, uses an integrated algorithm to create IP addresses automatically. IANA is a part of ICANN, which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This is a well-known organization for anyone who has ever bought a domain name or put money into building their own website.
The network ID is a part of an IP address that is used to identify a particular network or host. Usually, this part of an IP address is near the beginning of the address. The host ID is another part of an IP address that is used to identify a particular IP/TCP network. After a network ID comes a host ID, which can be used with class identifiers and default subnet masks as needed.
FAQs
Many devices support entering the IP address manually. This information is provided to help guide you through the manual steps used for most devices. If it’s not necessary to enter your IP address manually, it’s recommended to use the easy setup.
However, if you want to share files in a computer to other devices, then you might need a manual assign IP function to set a static IP for the computer so you don’t need to search and confirm the IP address of the computer every time when you want to access it.
To change these settings, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Network in the sidebar, click a network service on the right, click Details, then click TCP/IP. (You may need to scroll down.) Choose your ISP’s recommended IPv4 configuration method.