I use my laptop (Windows Vista Ultimate) to connect to a wireless network in college, which assigns a dynamic IP address, and at home, with a static IP address and DNS server.
I'm looking for a good solution/software to switch between college/home settings without changing them manually.
I've found an open-source application called Network Switcher, but the official site says that its development has been discontinued.
Any other suggestions? Thanks.
36 Answers
Here are two programs to switch between pre-configured network settings:
The website is in Turkish. Here's the download link.
IP Organizer is freeware.
NetSetMan is free for personal use.
1If your solely problem is switching between DHCP-enabled and static IP networks on Windows, then you don't need any extra software at all. Since ye olde Windows XP days you can switch between "normal" and "alternate" configs for your network connections. Go to your Network and Sharing Center, find your connection (it may be the active one), click on it (or double click if you had to go to Change Adapter Settings), click on Properties, Internet Protocol Version 4 or 6 (TCP/IPv4 or v6).
Then in the dialog you'll see the usual network configuration and a tab for an "Alternative Configuration". You can set up one for your automatic configuration via DHCP and another one for a static IP configuration. When there's no DHCP server, Windows will use the other one.
I don't know if this helps but I've found this.
It's for Vista, I don't know which OS you are using since you didn't mentioned it. I'd assume Windows 7 to have a similar feature.
2Looking for the same advice, I found this article:
The article lists NetSetMan and IP Organizer along a few others, namely: Net Profiles, Free IP Switcer and Cye Network Profile.
Check the software that came with the laptop. Dell's ship (or at least used to ship) with a program called QuickSet. It caused a lot of problems for people because it would tend to disable your NIC if you were on battery power, and the cable was unplugged, but it did not detect when the status changed. However if you disabled that, one of the cool features was the ability to set network profiles. I used it to change the network settings, and even the default printer depending on which office I was in.
Mobile Net Switch is a good way to get started; you want to figure out what features you really need. Certain tools offer so many features, it becomes confusing. This tool is a good starting point (freeware, minor splash screen).
