I am trying to determine if I have a dynamic or static IP address for my
home network. My ISP tells me that I have a dynamic one but even after I
shut all machines down, disconnect the router and cable modem, when I run a
test I get the same IP address every time. Can someone tell me how, or even
if it's possible to determine whether I have a dynamic or static IP
address? Thanks.
If your ISP says it's dynamic, it's dynamic!
Bear in mind that even dynamic IP address assignments can be fairly
'sticky'.
In otherwords, if you re-connect quickly, you may well get re-assigned the
same IP address.
So there's no guarantee the address will change, but no guarantee it won't,
either.
You don't sat what test you run.
If you use ipconfig /all at the command prompt, you may well see local IP
addresses like 192.168.0.2. These are being assigned not by your ISP, but
by your router. There's no reason to change this. To see your external (
public ) IP address which your ISP assigns you, then go to
www.whatismyip.com.
If you need to change your public IP address, then I'd power off the router
for at least 30 mins, and then re-connect.
There are few legitimate reasons you would need to do this,
the only ones I can think of are:
1) Your IP address got blacklisted from some service;
2) The IP address you got was previously used by a P2P user,
and you are getting continuous attempts to connect to you from
the other peers.