I'm getting an error message, help!?

Question

I run Windows 98 (not second edition)
and I am getting this error message randomly even when no programs or browsers are running:

The system has detected a conflict for IP address 192.168.1.100 with the system having hardware address 00:12:5A:51:C0:54

And every time I get the message, the hardware address is different. Another one that I've seen is: 00:13:10:98:E1:B1.

What could this mean? And what do I do to fix this?
It usually goes away after clicking 'ok' a few times.

It is actually running on a wep protected network. There are two other computers that run on the network.

Oh, and the whole system is DHCP.

Answer 1

Been awhile since Win98, but I'll try. This is obviously a network issue, to fully understand what is happening I would have to know how your network is setup the IP address is the home IP the other addess is called a MAC or Modem Access Code. Which I wouldn't be posting on the internet if I were you. Your easiest solution is to renew your IP on the network. Click Start>Run> Type cmd >press Enter you should get a DOS prompt C:\ or something similar. Type ipconfig /renew, that should take care of the problem. However not knowing your setup you may need to restart a router or reconfigure it's MAC address.

Answer 2

Doesn't give enough data to analyse the problem? Is this at home or work? Do you have a network at home or work? If at home, how many computers or devices are you running? Is yours a static IP address and the others DHCP?

The error usually means that some other device has the same IP as your computer.

Find out what the IP addresses for the other devices are. Set it to static or make them all DHCP. If you have a DHCP router or server then you can specify a range of addresses to dish out to the devices. Usually routers, servers, printers, etc. have static IP addresses while computers usually obtain an address from the DHCP provider.

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Answer 3

The best thing to do, unless there is some dire compelling reason not to, is to upgrade your operating system. Windows 98 in famous for crashing at random and other issues, and you even have the old first edition.

Upgrade to a newer o/s before you end up having to recover from complete o/s failure and reinstalling your o/s. You don't have to go to XP if that is too expensive for you. You could even upgrade to Windows 2000 which is a very stable system (I still use it on most of my pcs).

If you are still resolved to keep your old Win98 1st edition, copy and paste your error message into a GOOG search. Print out your favorite solution, and get to work on it.

Answer 4

Wht kind of network are you on? On any network, no two systems may have the same network address. If a second system comes by with the same address, there is a conflict.

Every system has a unique hardware address. It is telling you the hardware address of the other system with the same network address.

Answer 5

A stealth program, probably spyware or malware is trying to contact IP address 192.168.1.100 and is missing something that allows it to make contact. You system does not know it is malware, and gives you a normal warning as it would any program in conflict.

I suggest you begin by running some adware or malware programs. I use both Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy with great success. You can get free downloads of each at http://lavasoft.com and http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1 respectively. After cleaning the junk out of your computer, you will need to clean the garbage out of your registry. Get Microsoft RegClean free at http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=458 . Do not use just any spyware that advertises as free on the Internet. Some of them are actually spyware themselves. Use a good antivirus program too. Good luck. Contact me on Messenger if you need to. I am always invisible.

Answer 6

Each computer has its own hardware addreess that is the mac address. Every modem etc has its own mac address.
Sounds like someone else or more than one person is on your internet network. Do you have a wireless network or something?

Answer 7

It does not matter if it's Win98 1st Edition or 2nd Edition... Here's the fault and fix.. Good Luck

Answer 8

you have to do this ipconfig/release and/or
ipconfig/renew_all

If it does not work, you have to change the ip address manually to 192.168.1.101 or 111