What are two ways an IP address can be assigned to a PC?

you don't assign one yourself, persay... They are more or less assigned for you. With dialup connections, each time you connect to your ISP they give you a temporary IP to use while you are connected. When you disconnect, that IP is thrown back into a pool of other IP's and ready for the next person who connects.

Broadband and higher connections use static IP's quite often because of their "always on" capabilities. Since they never disconnect they are going to be the only ones using it and are often assigned an IP by their provider/ISP. Once that IP is assigned they can use it to directly link websites, ftps, telnets, etc to a specific computer. In order to get it changed, you would have to contact the provider and talk with them.

[Or, if you have been granted control of your own public network, you may do this directly by choosing and assigning an IP address within your "owned" public subnet to the machine(s) you choose. Beware that this means you need to handle your own "routing, switching and security (usually your own firewall)". JMH]

Linux

We can assign ip address to the Windows based computer using these steps .

Click Start, click Control Panel, click '''Network and internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.'''

1. Right-click the network connection that is connected to the private ICS network, and then click Properties.
2. On the General tab, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the '''This connection uses the following items list, and then click Properties.'''
3. On the General tab, click '''Use the following IP address. Configure the entries as follows: #* IP Address: The IP address you chose for this client (for example, 192.168.0.100). #* Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 #* Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1 #* Click '''Use the following DNS server addresses, and then type 192.168.0.1 in the '''Preferred DNS server box.'''''' '''
4. Click Advanced, and then click the DNS tab.
5. In the '''DNS suffix for this connection box, type MSHOME.NET.'''
6. Click OK.
7. Click OK.

:

Any IP (Internet Protocol) address can be assigned to a Linux machine with a single step using the 'ifconfig' command. You must be 'root' user to issue this command. As is clearly illustrated by the lengthy, over complicated sequence of steps in the answer above, assigning two Internet Protocol addresses to a single Ethernet interface on a Linux host is refreshingly simple and elegant...

ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

To bring the interface up or down, in the example above, it is interface eth0,

issue the command:

ifconfig eth0 up

or

ifconfig eth0 down

No wonder Linux and it's BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) counterparts are

running the vast majority of the web servers on the Internet, besides the fact

Linux and friends are faster, more user friendly (IMHO anyway) and of course,

far more reliable (not to mention more powerful).