Setting a static IP address on Debian 5.0

To give debian a static IP address change the file

/etc/network/interfaces

Find the line that reads

iface eth0 inet dhcp

and change it to

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.1.xxx
netmask 255.255.240.0
gateway 192.168.1.xxx

Where the IP addresses are whichever addresses you need to put in. If the computer was hooked up as DHCP and it connected to the server then the DNS server values are already set (they are contained in a different file) when you are done you can restart the network configurations but the cleanest way is just to restart the computer