How do I set my IP address in Vista?

"Changing an IP (v4) Address in Windows Vista

Click Start and then Control Panel

Click to enter Classic View on the left if you are not already in it.
Enter the Network and Sharing Center

Click Manage Network Connections in the left pane. (tip: to get here quicker, just hit your Start button and type ncpa.cpl)

Right-click on the device you wish to set the IP address and click Properties

Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties

This is the tricky part. You need to know yourself what to put in here.

In step 7, I entered details that are relevant to me. The default gateway is set on your modem / router. This bit is crucial. The IP address I entered was within the range allowed on my modem and the subnet mask fills itself in depending on how you typed your IP."

"And if you prefer the command-line way of doing it:

netsh interface ip set address name=""Local Area Connection"" source=static addr=<ip address> mask=<subnet mask> gateway=<default gateway> gwmetric=0

Obviously the name has to be right, so list the available connections and their names to figure out which one to set:

netsh interface show interface

Gateway can be left out if it doesn't need changing. To set the DNS servers to something else as well:

netsh interface ip set dns name=""Local Area Connection"" source=static addr=<dns address>
netsh interface ip add dns name=""Local Area Connection"" addr=<additional dns address>

For completeness, to reset the connection to DHCP (automatically assign IP address and DNS servers):

netsh interface ip set address name=""Local Area Connection"" dhcp
netsh interface ip set dns name=""Local Area Connection"" dhcp"