Release/Renew Your IP Address (2024)

Sometimes the first step in troubleshooting IP problems is to try to get a new IP address and validate your device is 'talking' on the network. You can release and renew the device IP address manually. A word of caution: if your setup requires a static IP address, meaning that your IP address never changes, this guide is not for you. Please Start a Conversation for assistance. This is usually reserved for servers, and not your standard desktop or laptop. In all but the rarest cases, you’ll have a static IP address and can proceed.

Windows 10

To access and renew your IP address, you’ll need to open a command prompt.

1. Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Enter your admin username and password, if prompted.
3. A command prompt window will open. At the flashing cursor, type ipconfig /release. This will release your IP address.
4. Type ipconfig /renew to get a new IP address.
5. Type exit to exit the command prompt.

A restart may be required to complete the process.

Apple OS X

To release and renew your IP address in Mac OS X, you’ll use the Network system preferences to renew the DHCP Lease.

1. Click the Apple button and choose System Preferences.
2. Click the Network icon in the Internet and Network section.
3. Select your method of connecting to the internet. In most cases it will either be Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
4. Click Advanced.
5. If you selected Ethernet, you should already be in the TCP/IP tab heading. If you aren’t, or if you selected Wi-Fi, click the TCP/IP tab heading.
6. Click Renew DHCP Lease.
7. Click OK to exit the Advanced window, and then exit System Preferences.

A restart may be required to complete the process.

Apple OS X from the Terminal

The basic syntax to renew DHCP lease from the command line with ipconfig is as follows:

sudo ipconfig set (DEVICEINTERFACE) DHCP

If you know the device interface (en0, en1, en2, etc), just run that command to release and then renew DHCP for the determined device. Let’s say it’s en0, standard for modern Macs with wi-fi only.

sudo ipconfig set en0 DHCP

Once the command is run you can check if DHCP has set properly by determining DHCP info with the same ipconfig command with ‘getpacket’ like so:

ipconfig getpacket en0

Linux

To renew your IP address, you’ll need to use Terminal to first release, and then renew the IP.

To release your IP address:

1. Enter the Terminal from the root account.
2. Type ifconfig ethX down (X is the Ethernet adapter you are looking to release, usually eth0).
3. PressEnter.

To renew your IP address:

1. While still in the Terminal from the root account, type ifconfig ethX up (again, where X is the Ethernet adapter you are looking to renew, usually eth0).
2. Press Enter