//Display existing network configuration.  This will display the network configs for the machine.
//Not the lo which is the loopback config.
$ netstat -i

//edit the /etc/network/interfaces
$ sudo vim /etc/network/interfaces

//comment out the dhcp setting and add the static setting.
iface lo inet loopback
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.4
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1

//restart network config
$ /etc/init.d/networking restart

//set the nameserver(Ubuntu)
sudo vim /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/tail
//add the following line
nameserver 192.168.1.1
//restart resolv
sudo /etc/init.d/resolvconf restart