What is better a static ip address or a dynamic?
 

My father had a question that hopefully someone knows. What are the advantages, if any of going to a static ip address. This is for home use. We have one computer hardwired, and 3 that run wirelessly.

Not sure about all the pros/cons of each, but I do know that static IPs are necessary when forwarding ports through a router to a computer. Otherwise, when the dynamic IP changes, the ports will no longer be forwarded to the proper computer.

for home use, its useless for an average computer users.

Only advantage I see is when the ip address for a machine changes, you wont have to fix all the ip's for ports forwarded to that particular machine.

Using static ip's will not make your network faster. If anything, it will be a giant pain to add devices to your network because you will need to add a new static ip for a device when adding to the network.

I always use static IPs because it makes network management so much easier. Of course, I don't have your typical network. Just in my apartment alone I have 17 different IP addresses (4 printers, 3 desktops, 2 laptops, 1 server, 2 phones, 1 iPod, 1 Tablet, 3 game consoles. I may actually be forgetting a thing or two.) plus I have another 2 down the street for my niece.

It would be an absolute nightmare using dynamic IP addresses, especially with the printers.

I have a mix. All wired connections static. Wireless dhcp

for an average home user they no need static IP.

I have an old Laserjet printer with a network card, and it only works with a static IP. For everything else I have never had a problem with DHCP. I think your network will be slightly more secure with static IPs. A friend visiting won't be able surf on your network if all the IPs are static. DHCP is a lot less work to setup.

If your Dad doesn't already know why he wants to use static IPs, he doesn't need them. I would guess 98% of all home networks are DHCP. The other 2% belong to geeks.

If you need to ask this question don't even consider it. Windows 7 does a great job of keeping things on track IMO. Also, the set up you specify should be fine with dynamic IP's

Static for my remote desktop setup and PC and NAS
Dynamic for guest and wireless
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Pros :
You know the exact address (ip) of your destination, therefore if you need to connect to this device, you'll be right 100% of the time.

Uses : servers, shared printers, workstations

Cons :
Requires a set up every time you need to configure a new device to work with your static ip machine.

Dynamic IP - pretty much use this if you're at home man, there isn't anything particularly bad with DHCP for home use.

The average user doesn't need it, and if you do it, make your router reserve ips based on the mac address. don't change the static ip in the computer network settings.