Hi Everyone:
I have a Linksys 802.11 G Wireless Broadband Connection setup at home. Basically, the DSL Modem is connected to the wireless router which is connected to the main computer. On the other side of the house, I have a wireless setup which also includes a Linksys Range Expander which is needed to keep the signal strength high. Of course, all network devices have their own IP address including the range expander.
At the moment, everything is working fine. However, I got an error message yesterday which I have never seen before. The error message is as follows: Windows System Error: There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network. I assume this error message is nothing serious seeing that everything is working fine on the wireless setup. However, I am curious what could have caused such an error message. And, secondly, how can an IP address be diagnoised and corrected if it exist?
Any thoughts or ideas on this question will be appreciated. I look forward to reviewing everyone's thoughts on this matter.
Thank you
George
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Hi
Thank you so much for the prompt reply. With regards to refreshing the IP addresses of each pc on the wireless connection, is there any particular sequence or order in which this needs to be done?
And, secondly, can an IP address conflict happen even if all network equipment has unique IP addresses?
Thank you
George
If you're not using any network printers, then they don't have IP addresses :-)
As for a conflict ==> when a system first boots up, it "asks" for an IP from your DHCP server (probably the router in your case). When that system goes off-line, the router will (after a certain amount of time) re-assign that IP when someone else "asks" for an IP. That's what a dynamic IP address means --> the IP is assigned dynamically.
One way a conflict could occur would be if a system went into standby (with the wired or wireless ethernet adapter "going to sleep" in the process) and then later "woke up" and tried to access the network with the same IP address it had before entering standby. IF that IP address had been reassigned while the system was asleep, then there would be 2 systems attempting to use the same IP address. Normally, when this happens, the DHCP server will simply re-assign an IP address to the other system. But this isn't always handled as "cleanly" as you might like.
As noted above, this is rare; and is usually "self-resolving". But if it was to become a problem, you could resolve it by assigning a static IP address to all of your fixed systems (those that never leave the house) and let the DHCP server assign numbers from a different range within the same subnet. I do this, for example, with my printer => so its IP address never changes and I can keep a bookmarked page to check ink status, etc. (otherwise the bookmarked page would occasionally fail because the printer's IP address was different)
Hi Gary
First of all, it is very nice to see you are still around EE. You have always been of tremendous help to me in the past which is certainly remembered and appreciated. Now, to the followup of your response.
Everything you stated certainly makes logical sense. With respect to assigning static IP addresses to all fixed systems on the network, how may this be accomplished? Would I simply go into the TCP/IP of the Local Area Connection and change it from there in the area which is normally checked Assign IP address automatically and DNS automatically? From a previously closed post, I mentioned having to go into the TCP/IP stack of the Local Area Connection and assign a Primary and Alternate DNS address.
Hopefully, my followup question to this post makes sense. If not, let me know and I will attempt to be a little clearer.
Thank you.
George
Yes, on the TCP/IP properties page, where you normally have "Obtain an IP address automatically" checked; you can check "Use the following IP address" to assign a static address.
This should normally not be necessary ==> but there are cases where it is; or where it's more convenient to KNOW that a particular device always has the same IP.
For example, your router probably (assuming you haven't changed its defaults) assigns IP addresses starting at 192.168.1.100 and going up from there (up to 50 addresses). You can change this in the router's configuration page => but the defaults are fine.
Any IP address in the 192.168.1.xxx subnet will work fine on your network ==> so you could safely assign static IP's in the range between 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.99 without conflicting with the router (the router itself uses 192.168.1.1). Clearly these numbers will be a bit different if you have made any changes to the router; or if it's not the "normal" Linksys router I assumed (e.g. a VOIP router, etc.). But the concept is the same. Note that if you do decide to manually assign the IP's, use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway address of your router's IP (probably 192.168.1.1).
If you manually assign the IP's, and have any trouble with the internet access from those PC's, then it's not getting the info it needs from your gateway (the router); so you may also need to manually assign the DNS addresses --> as you've indicated you've done before [this is done on the same TCP/IP configuration page as the IP addresses].
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by: kulvinder_10Posted on 2007-10-25 at 17:46:23ID: 20152553
IP Address conflict mean that their are atleast 2 systems on a network which claims to have the same IP.
This is possible in some cases, so test by doing ipconfig in each of the computers and Printers IP though configuration page if any.
Check all the routers DHCP table and see if all the pc and printers has their ip lister their correctly as u get by the ipconfig command.
Most of the time this error correct itself if it is not a Static ip, in that case u have to manully remove that ip.
In order to make sure everything is fine, do ipconfig/release command and then ipconfig/renew on all of the pc so that they will get the fresh ip from dhcp server.