# How do you associate/disassociate floating IP in an instance?
### Overview
When talking about IPs, each instance can have a public/ floating IP address in addition to its private/fixed IP address. Public addresses are used to communicate with networks outside the cloud, such as the Internet, whereas private addresses are used to communicate amongst instances. An instance's private IP address is automatically assigned when it is launched and remains the same until the instance is specifically terminated.
The floating IP addresses you can allot to a project are specified by its project quota. After a floating IP address has been assigned to a project, you can:
* Associate or connect the floating IP address to a compute instance, where a single instance can only ever receive one floating IP address.
* Dissociate or delete the connection between a floating IP address and a compute instance.
### **a. How to Associate a Floating IP with an Instance?**
Follow the steps to associate a Floating IP with a compute instance.
**Step 1:** [Login](https://customer.acecloudhosting.com/index.php?m=ace_product_register_addon\&action=login) to your account.
**Step 2:** Navigate to **Compute** and then click on **Instances**.
**Step 3:** Click on the **drop-down menu** against the instance for which you want to associate the floating IP.
**Step 4**: Choose **Attach Floating IP** from the drop-down.
**Step 5:** You need to select an IP address from the pool of pre-defined available IP addresses and the port address, then click on the **Submit** button.
### b. How to Disassociate a Floating IP from an Instance?
Follow the steps for disassociating the Floating IP from a compute instance.
**Step 1:** Click on the **drop-down** against the instance for which you want to disassociate the floating IP.
**Step 2**: Choose **Detach Floating IP** from the drop-down.
**Step 3:** Select the **Floating IP** you want to disassociate from the drop-down menu and click the **Submit** button.
