Setting a static IP on Ubuntu: a

beginner's guide
Many situations occur when a static IP address needs to be set. For example, if you have
programs that use the IP address say for remote login, then you might hardcode the IP
address. But if the IP address is dynamic it can change, and thus you need an IP that
does not change and hence you would need to set a static IP for your system. This
tutorial deals with setting a static IP for Ubuntu OS.

1 Manually configuring the interface

This step involves manually configuring the network interface by making changes to the
"interfaces" file. Here I use the "gedit" file editor but it is possible to use other editors
like "nano", "vi", etc. Type the following command in the terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

If it asks for password enter that and a file will open that looks like:
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface etho inet dynamic
There might be more than one network card and so be sure which network card you
want to change. First open another terminal and run the command:
ifconfig

This gives the IP address of your system along with "Bcast" address and "mask". Note
the IP, Bcast and the mask of your system. This is done so that you can go back to the
original IP when needed. Let's assume the values we have got for "eth0" network
interface (that is my ethernet connection) is:
address: 192.168.28.37
Bcast: 192.168.28.255
Mask:

255.255.255.0

So, when the interfaces file is configured for a static IP on "eth0", it must have a general
format like below:
# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet static
address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx(enter your ip here)
netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx(enter gateway ip here,usually the address of the router)
Below is a screenshot of my "interfaces" file. Note that Bcast also means Gateway, and
mask also means netmask. Here we assume that our new static IP to set is
192.168.3.215.

So please make changes according to your "interfaces" file. Save and close it.

2 Configuring DNS information

Please note that this step isn't mandatory. If you do not want to change the DNS
information, then skip this step. Here we change the IP of DNS server to what we prefer.
There are a lot of DNS server IPs, that can be found and used. First open the file
"resolv.conf" using the following command:
sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf

Initially it will look something like this:

# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 127.0.1.1
search Home
Now we can add many nameservers and change the existing one to suit our needs.
Make changes and save the file. The following screenshot shows the resolv.conf file
changed to have two nameservers:

3 Making the changes permanent

Once the changes have been made to one or both the files (interfaces and resolv.conf),
we will have to apply those changes to reflect them. Previously, we could restart the
network to make the changes happen, but due to some reason, newer versions of
Ubuntu doesn't apply those changes. So, we will have to reboot the whole system. To do
so, use the command:
sudo reboot

After the restart, the output of network details should show the changes. Open a
terminal and run the command:
ifconfig

On examining the output , the eth0 interface should have the new IP, Bcast and mask.
In this case, the output might look similar to this:
eth0

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

inet addr:192.168.3.215 Bcast:192.168.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
.....

This confirms that the changes have been applied.

4 Configuring other interface like "eth1"

There might be other interfaces, like "eth1" that might require configuration. In this
case, some changes are required to interface file as shown. The changes here are:

adding eth1 in the "auto" line

ading the configuration for eth0

Make changes as shown in the image below with the required IP, Bcast and mask

So, this way changes can be made to many different interfaces.

5 Configuring another IP for same interface

Here we have set one IP address for "eth0". But, what if we want to set another IP? Here
we have set the IP as 192.168.3.215. Now for the same interface if we want to set
another IP say 192.168.3.217, then we can do it by changing the "interfaces" file. Here
"eth0:1" indicates that we are assigning a second IP for the "eth0" interface.The
changes are represented in the image below.

6 Configuring IP address using the Desktop

Application
Most of the configuration done above can be carried out in the desktop application
called "network". To go ahead with that, start by opening the "network" application from
the dash as shown in the image below.

Click on "network" to open it. It will look similar to the one below:

In that window, click on the "options" button at the bottom right corner and in the
window that opens, click on the "IPv4 settings" tab. The window is shown below

Initially the setting is set to "Automatic(dhcp)", which is dynamic IP. To make it static,
select the dropdown menu and click on manual as shown in the image below:

Once manual is selected the text box below it is activated. Click the "Add" button on the
right and on the left hand text box, enter the IP, the mask(netmask) and the gateway
(Bcast) addresses. Also add the DNS server IP if you wish to change that too. Once done
click on save. After this editing, it should look similar to the image below:

Once saved, we will have to restart the system as before in order for the changes to be
applied.