How to request a new DHCP address

Ever been in the situation where you needed a new IP address? Maybe after, oh, I don’t know, you forgot to turn on the switch, and started your computer without an internet connection?

That’s just me? Wow.

Either way, if you want to request a new IP address, here’s a simple method to do so, and to easily do it again if you ever need it. Normally I’d suggest you to use the terminal, but with this trick you don’t need to know what that black box is or does.

How it’s done

  1. Open a text editor, like Notepad.

  2. Type the following two lines:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

They’re both terminal commands, but don’t worry about what that means.

  1. Save the file as (something).bat ; replacing something with anything that’ll tell you “Oh yeah, this is the thing I need to click”. It’s important to choose the “All files” option when saving, so you use the proper extension, and not .txt!

  2. Double click the file you just made.

  3. You’ll see a black (terminal) box open and close. This is the command line that’s been opened, in which the two commands were executed. First, if an IP address was already assigned, it’s been released. Then, a new IP address was requested – and, unless you’re having network issues – given to you by the responsible DHCP server.

And voila, you now have a fresh IP address, and you’re ready to conquer the internet by storm.

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