How to Change your IP Address on Windows (PC)

The only way to “hide your IP address” is to change your IP address. To literally “hide” (make disappear) an IP address would require completey disabling your connection to the Internet and not going online again. That’s extreme, but sure to keep your IP address private.

Here are some less extreme options for CHANGING your IP address:

*PLEASE NOTE: If you’re doing this in an attempt to prevent people (e.g. webmasters) from tracking you, be sure to delete your browser cookies and restart your browser before trying any of the following.

1] Are you using a dialup ISP? If so, just dialup through a different access number. That will give you a new IP address. Simple and convenient.

2] Do you want to just change your IP address once? If so, go to a free Internet cafe or library. That’s inconvenient, but simple.

3] Do you need to change your IP address often? Using a service like www.iPrivacyTools.com will make things easy. Simple and convenient, but it does require a fee.

4] Now for some ways to manually change a broadband connection’s IP address. The following instructions are for Cable/DSL users that want to force a single IP change. These instructions will often work, but not always — some ISP’s are really serious about keeping users on the same IP address.

4A] On some ISP’s, just turning your modem off for 24 hours, and then turning it back on, will give you a new IP.

4B] If 4A didn’t work, and you’re using Cable/DSL, and you have NO router:

  • Go to your START menu, type “cmd” and hit enter.
  • At the prompt type “ipconfig /release” and then hit enter.
  • Right-click on the icon for “local area connection” and click “properties”.
  • Doubleclick on “Internet Protocol tcp/ip”.
  • Check “Use the following IP address” and enter 111.111.111.111 for the ip and 255.0.0.0 for the subnet mask.
  • Click “OK” twice to close the dialog box).
  • Wait 30 seconds, then go back into that dialog box and instead of “use the following IP address” click on “obtain an IP address automatically”.
  • Check to see if your IP has changed.

4C] If 4A didn’t work, and you’re using Cable/DSL WITH a router:

  • Login to your router’s control panel and change (clone) your mac address by increasing or decreasing the last digit by 1.
  • Then disconnect and reconnect using the router control panel interface.
  • Usually you’ll get a new IP address.. To verify, go to your START menu, type “cmd”, hit Enter, then type “IPCONFIG /all” to see your new IP address

4D] If nothing has worked above:

  • Go to your START menu, type “cmd” and Enter.
  • Type “ipconfig /release”.
  • If you’re using a router, log into your router control panel and “release the ip”.
  • Turn of your computer, modem, and router for severals hours.
  • Go to START menu, type “cmd”, hit Enter, then type “IPCONFIG /all” to see your new IP address

4E] Another option if nothing has worked above:

  • Contact your ISP and tell them that you’ve been having trouble with your current IP address and want a new one.
  • They will hopefully give you the specific steps necessary to get a new IP address with them.
  • Last resort: get a new ISP.

Hope that helps! If anyone out there has had success with other methods, please leave your input in the comments.

Leave a Reply