static address

What is static address?

An IP address that is manually assigned to a host on a TCP/IP internetwork. Computers running Microsoft Windows support both static Internet Protocol (IP) addressing and dynamic IP addressing through the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

Static IP addresses are usually used for:

• Small workgroups whose machine configurations will not change often. Peer-to-peer networks that use Windows 95 or Windows 98 don’t have a DHCP server to assign IP addresses to stations on the network.
• Servers on a network, which should have an IP address that does not change. An alternative is to assign a DHCP reservation to these servers so that they receive their IP addresses automatically from a DHCP server but always receive the same reserved address.
• Windows NT–based and Windows 2000–based servers that are running certain services, such as DHCP, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), or Domain Name System (DNS). Servers running these services normally require static IP addresses.