1. Introduction
In this article, we will explore how to dynamically modify the local IP address on a Windows system using Python 3.10. Changing the IP address on a Windows machine can be useful in various scenarios, such as setting up a virtual network or troubleshooting network connectivity issues.
2. Retrieving Current IP Configuration
To begin, let's write a script to retrieve the current IP configuration of the system. We can make use of the socket
module in Python to achieve this. Here's the code:
import socket
def get_current_ip_config():
hostname = socket.gethostname()
ip_address = socket.gethostbyname(hostname)
return ip_address
current_ip = get_current_ip_config()
print(f"Current IP Address: {current_ip}")
The get_current_ip_config()
function makes use of the gethostname()
method to retrieve the current host's name, and then uses gethostbyname()
method to get the IP address associated with that hostname. The IP address is then returned by the function. Running the script will display the current IP address of the system.
3. Modifying Local IP Address
Now, let's move on to the main part - dynamically modifying the local IP address. To achieve this, we will make use of the netifaces
library in Python, which provides an interface to retrieve and manipulate the network interface information.
3.1 Installing netifaces Library
If you haven't already installed the netifaces
library, you can do so by running the following command:
pip install netifaces
3.2 Modifying IP Address
Let's write a function to modify the local IP address. We will need to provide the interface name and the new IP address as parameters to this function. Here's the code:
import netifaces
def modify_ip(interface, new_ip):
current_config = netifaces.ifaddresses(interface)
netifaces.ifaddresses(interface)[netifaces.AF_INET][0]['addr'] = new_ip
interface = 'Ethernet' # Specify the interface name here
new_ip = '192.168.1.10' # Specify the new IP address here
modify_ip(interface, new_ip)
The interface
variable should be set to the name of the network interface on which you want to modify the IP address. The new_ip
variable should be set to the desired new IP address.
Here, we use the ifaddresses()
function from netifaces
to retrieve the current configuration of the specified interface. Then, we update the IP address value in the configuration with the new IP address using the addr
key. This will effectively modify the IP address of the interface.
4. Applying the Changes
Once we have modified the IP address, we need to apply the changes so that they take effect. This can be done using the netsh
command-line tool.
To apply the changes, open a command prompt with administrative privileges and run the following command:
netsh interface ipv4 add address name="Ethernet" addr=192.168.1.10
Replace Ethernet
with the name of the interface on which you have modified the IP address, and 192.168.1.10
with the new IP address.
After running the command, the changes will be applied and the new IP address will be assigned to the specified interface.
5. Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed how to dynamically modify the local IP address on a Windows system using Python 3.10. We have covered retrieving the current IP configuration, modifying the IP address, and applying the changes using the netifaces
library and the netsh
command-line tool. With this knowledge, you can now programmatically change the IP address on a Windows machine based on your requirements.