What does it mean when my computer tell me that there is an IP address conflict on my network?!?

Question

Sorry dont make fun but I have no idea what that means. My husband said he would look at it later to see what I was talking about.

So is my computer safe?! The last post said something about hacking?! Sorry yall...I dont know this sort of stuff about computers.

Answer 1

This is not a stupid question, don't worry. What it means is that there are two devices on your local network using the same IP address. If you are using DHCP, this should (hopefully) never happen, but if you are assigning static IPs for some or all of your devices (such as web servers, network printers, etc) then this conflict can easily arise.

Now that you know the problem, the next question is how to resolve it? OK, normally this message will appear on any device that is the one of two or more offending devices. For some network devices (such as printers, scanners, etc), the message may not be so simple to see or may not show up at all. But at least you seem to know of one machine (I am assuming it is a PC) that has this issue. So what you need to do is first check your IP settting for this machine (depends on the OS, but for XP it is Start->Control Panel->Network Connections). What you need to look at is how TCP/IP is configured, so double-click on network connections and look for a NIC (network inface card) icon. Right click on it and choose properties. Select the TCP/IP protocol and click the properties button. If "Use the following IP Address" button is selected, copy down the information in that little box. Then change the last number (eg: 192.168.0.23 to 192.168.0.50). See if the error goes away. If it doesn't, try using a different last number.

If it does then open a command prompt (DOS like thing). You can do that by going to Start->Run and typing in cmd. Then type "ping XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" where you fill in the X's with the old IP address that your computer was set to. This should give you some kind of name of the other device that is set to your old IP address. You can now stop or be a better network manager and write down all the static IPs you have assigned and what devices they are using so you don't have any more conflicts (unless you have wiley people on your network that start doing their own thing, but with your new knowledge you can clamp down on them hard).

Answer 2

Computers communicate over the Internet using the protocol (language) TCP/IP. These addresses are typically given to the computers by another protocol called DHCP, Dynamic Host Control Protocol. A DHCP server can be either a server or a device such as a router.
Somehow your computer was given an address that is already in use. Either someone else on your network manually assigned the same address you have to another computer or the DHCP server malfunctioned.
If you are using Microsoft Windows
Click Start then run
Type cmd then press enter. This will open a command prompt
Type ipconfig /release then press enter
Type ipconfig /renew then press enter.
Type ipconfig /registerdns
This will make the DHCP server assign you a new TCP/IP address hopefully not the address already in use by the pther computer, and re-register your computer name with the DNS (domain name server).

Answer 3

It means two devices on your network have both been given the same IP address.

The way your router works is that it assigns everything connected to it an "internal" IP address, visible only to people connected to the router, so that the multiple computers connected to the router are uniquely identifiable.

To fix this, the easiest solution(to my knowledge) is to go around to each computer on your network that is currently on and do the following, if they are running Windows XP:

Start > Run
Type "cmd" and hit enter
Type "ipconfig /release" and hit enter
Type "ipconfig /renew" and hit enter

All of those commands should be without the quotation marks, by the way. For operating systems other than Windows XP, if ipconfig doesn't work, I think ipcfg will.

Answer 4

It means that the IP address assigned to the computer you are on has already been taken up by another computer. An IP address is a network's unique way of identifying computers on the Internet much like a SSN. Check out the Network Properties under TCP/IP of all the computers on your network and ensure that all of them are unique

Answer 5

It usually means there are devices connected to your network that have the same IP address assigned to them.

Do you know about DHCP? Do you use it on your LAN?

Each device connected to your network must have unique IP address assigned to it.

You must make sure each device has a different IP address.

If you need more help just let me know.

Have fun but be safe.

Answer 6

It might be that someone has hacked your computer and is using it in the background.

If you want, go to Tweak XP (the XP is not the operating system - it doesn't matter what system you are running), and follow their directions EXACTLY for your operating system. They will have you download programs that will clean and secure your computer. They are free and some are trial versions that will expire after so many days or uses, but before they do they will have cleaned your computer. Kerio Personal Firewall will remain installed on your computer and will be updated free of charge. It's time consuming to download all the programs especially if you are on dialup, but it will clean your system.

Good luck.

Answer 7

It simple terms it means another device on your network is using the same IP address.

This can be caused by a number of things.
If you have multiple computers in your house attached to a router, one of the device's my be statically setup with an IP address that another device is assigned. In most cases you should configure devices attached to your router to obtain an IP address automatically. This leaves it up to the router to assign a unique IP address to each devices.

If you directly connected to a cable modem or a XDSL line, someone on your sub network (someone in your area) May have statically setup their IP address using the IP address assigned to you. This is referred to as a stolen IP address. Stolen IP address need to be resolved in most cases by contacting your ISP. If your ISP is not very cooperative in resolving this issue, you may get another IP address assigned by changing the MAC address of your NIC card.
Information can be found here on changing your MAC address.
http://www.nthelp.com/NT6/change_mac_w2k.htm

Make sure to reboot your modem and computer after changing your MAC address.