How do you assign an IP address to a personal computer?

Answer

you don't assign one yourself, persay... They are more or less assigned for you. With dialup connections, each time you connect to your ISP they give you a temporary IP to use while you are connected. When you disconnect, that IP is thrown back into a pool of other IP's and ready for the next person who connects.

Broadband and higher connections use static IP's quite often because of their "always on" capabilities. Since they never disconnect they are going to be the only ones using it and are often assigned an IP by their provider/ISP. Once that IP is assigned they can use it to directly link websites, ftps, telnets, etc to a specific computer. In order to get it changed, you would have to contact the provider and talk with them.

Answer

[Or, if you have been granted control of your own public network, you may do this directly by choosing and assigning an IP address within your "owned" public subnet to the machine(s) you choose. Beware that this means you need to handle your own "routing, switching and security (usually your own firewall)". JMH]

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