As you may already know, a device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address — whether dynamic or static — is its assigned 32-bit numerical label that can identify its host or network interface and location. There are many reasons why you may want to change your IP address or switch it from dynamic to static, and we’ll discuss these a bit later.
For now, let’s get into what you really came here for. You’ll be happy to know that, with this straightforward guide, changing your IP address on an Android should be a cinch. You have two options to go about it:
I’ll walk you through each one…
Related guide: How to change Google Play Store region
This is the most secure way to be anonymous on the internet. A VPN can protect your internet traffic and your privacy. You can change your IP address to another one so that your actual IP is concealed.
Related guide: How to find the best VPNs for Android
1. First, you’ll need to sign up for a reliable VPN, such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, SurfShark, or PureVPN.
2. Visit the Google Play Store and download the relevant apps for your Android mobile.
3. Install the app, open it, and enter your login credentials.
4. To connect, just select the location or server of your choice. Whatever is recommended — sometimes called the “Smart Location” — is generally best.
Now your IP address will be changed, and no one will know your device’s true IP. This is the best proven way to stay anonymous online.
These settings generally apply to any device that has the Android operating system installed, be it Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Google, or others. Making changes to the settings is easy.
Before you change your IP address, there are several things to be done. One is making sure to choose an available static IP address that’s on your local network. This could be done with any computer connected to the local network.
If you have a Windows machine, do the following:
Then:
Default Gateway
The default gateway is another IP address that the traffic you sent from your device gets to when its final destination is outside of the current local network. Simply put, this is the local network’s router’s private IP address. So, all the devices connected to this network send traffic to this IP address by default.
IPv4 Address
This address is the device you’re currently active on, or the one you enter the above commands from.
DNS Servers
DNS stands for Domain Name System. Many services operated on the internet or your local area networks such as Mail server and web server use DNS and are very important. ISPs use DNS server caching to minimize the traffic and avoid bottlenecks.
This is how to use the ping command:
ping
By now, you’ve probably decided what IP address to choose as your static IP address. Now let’s get on with the actual switching.
Remember the three important addresses we discussed? Here’s where you can use them. When manually configuring, you’ll have to fill out all those details manually.
That’s it. All done!
Once you’ve successfully completed all these steps, your device will reconnect to the home network with the new IP address.
As I mentioned, there are numerous reasons for someone to want to change their IP address. If you’ve read this far into the article, I bet one or more of the following reasons apply to you:
Fortunately, nothing should hold you back from doing any of that because now you know how to change your IP address and get a static IP instead of a dynamic IP. And as you’ve seen, this is really easy to set up.
Please put your comments and suggestions in the comment section, and ask away if you have any questions!
1 Comment
night_shadow
October 5, 2020 9:49 am
Surfshark works nicely on my Android phone, haven’t had any issues with connectivity. They also have pretty dope features in addition to the VPN service itself.