Very occasionally a message appears on screen stating; 'There is an IP address conflict with someone else'. Would anybody care to enlighten me as to what exactly that means and what I should do about it please. Thank you

I guess that would mean that you have the same IP address as another device on your network.

Is your machine connected to a router?

IP address conflict means that another device on your network has been allocated the same IP address. I such casesneither device will connect properly and one will have to be changed to a differetn IP

You do not state what your situation is whether at home or in a small business, or sharing Wi-Fi in an apartment, but the fact that the message appears occasionally would suggest that either the other device with the same IP address is not used all the time, or that either your PC or the other device has a dynamic IP address and the other a fixed IP If the device with the automatically assigned Dynamic IP address is turned on first it may be allocated the the address used by the device with the fixed IP when turned on later (Dybnamic IP addresses should normally are not assigned to addresses alreadyy in use (I hope all that is clear).

The best way to fix this is to go in to the router and change the range of dynamically assigned IP addresses so that it is seperate from the range used for devices with fixed IP addresses. If that is not possible then you should try changing the fixed IP address to another address, or set it as dynamic.

Unfortunately if you are in an apartment block sharing a wi-fi with other residents and the conflict is with another resident using as fixed IP, then the solution is out of your control and all you can do is disconnect and reconnect your unit to try and get a different address assigned.

Basically it's like two houses having the same address or two people having the same phone number. You can see how this might cause problems with communication.

I have the same happening from time to time.

Usually after my son used a WiFi device on our router. The IP remains in the router and then may cause a conflict if you start up a PC which had the same IP assigned previously.

The way I resolve it: shut down PC with message of conflicting IP and shut down router for 1-2 min. Restart router, wait until everything is stable on router and then re-start PC. Problem solved.

opalhort

Make sure your router has DHCP running, so it will allocate IP addresses.

Then make sure that all devices that you use have the "Obtain an IP address automatically" box checked.

Hi.

That has happened to me before and i was puzzled, until i found out what caused it. See, i use a router with a WiFi component so i can share my internet connection with my boyfriend's laptop, my own laptop and his mobile phone which can also use WiFi.

And whenever he used his laptop and his phone at the same time, the laptop would complain about the IP address conflict, even though all devices could browse the 'net just fine.

I then found out that the phone simply was not intelligent enough, it "stole" the address 192.168.1.2 regardless if some other device (the laptop!) already had this IP assigned via static IP (the computers all have static LAN IP's). I then had to figure out how to get the phone it's own static IP, too, and all was fine.

If it happens for you despite nobody in your household is using a WiFi device, it could be that your neighbours are tapping into your internet connection. Weak access password comes to mind - too many i have seen simply using AABBCCDDEE or something like that. Or, even worse - no password at all, in such case it does not even have to happen intentionally, just for example a phone or laptop in the neighbour's room that is set to log on whatever WiFi network is in range.

Like in my place, a neighbour had a phone that was infected by some sort of Symbian virus and it constantly attempted to send that virus to my computer (Bluetooth, not WiFi but comparable), which my computer of course refused but nevertheless informed me about. In turn i was able to access that phone from my computer and freely browse the photos on it's memory card

Best regards....

Thanh

Thanks for the prompt replies. I am using a laptop connected by wire to a router supplied by TOT at my home. My home is a detached house and no other computers nor wifi devices are present. Do I actually have to tell TOT about this intermittent problem, apart from switching things on and off, as a poster has advised me to do, I am not very computer literate? Is it TOT that will issue me with a different IP address? Apologies for coming over so stupid.

Sounds like your router is a wifi router and someone else is logging on to it and using your net connection - my first suggestion would be to lock down the Wifi access with a password.

Give me the make and model of the router and i will try to dig up some instructions for you from da'interweb

DHCP or Dynamic IP address assignment is the best in many cases, but it can make it more difficult for people who want to download torrents as manually opening ports requires a fixed IP address. However features in your router such as uPnP and Port Triggering are designed to get round this issue. There are other cases where fixed IP addresses are better but not normally relevant to most home users.

The way I resolve it: shut down PC with message of conflicting IP and shut down router for 1-2 min. Restart router, wait until everything is stable on router and then re-start PC. Problem solved.

opalhort

No need to shut down and restart. You can release and renew the dynamic IP assigned to your PC by opening a terminal session and typing ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew. This will release any IP previously assigned and issue you an available one.

Sounds like your router is a wifi router and someone else is logging on to it and using your net connection - my first suggestion would be to lock down the Wifi access with a password.

+1

Better do it soon. You wouldn't want a red-shirt post naughty things on some web board using your internet line

Hi.

Here comes to my mind.... why on earth do WiFi routers not simply have a switch or a button (hardware!) on their front to quickly and easily disable the WiFi part if not used?? This is something i always wonder. Granted it can be disabled through the web menu but which "Joe Normal" type user wants to do that or even knows of the possibility?

Kind regards....

Thanh

Hi.

Here comes to my mind.... why on earth do WiFi routers not simply have a switch or a button (hardware!) on their front to quickly and easily disable the WiFi part if not used?? This is something i always wonder. Granted it can be disabled through the web menu but which "Joe Normal" type user wants to do that or even knows of the possibility?

Kind regards....

Thanh

The reason is obvious. So that computer geeks have have free Internet access where ever they go at the expense of the less well informed "Joe Normal"

Thanks again. My router is not wifi. It was supplied from TOT when I signed up for ADSL. It is a BILLION BiPAC 5210S Duel-Port ADSL2+ Modem/Router if this is of some help.

Now that we can rule out wifi the issue becomes even more interesting to me!

Read about a maybe related issue discussed just today here or

about what is possible if your ISP lacks skilled technicians here.

Thanks again. My router is not wifi. It was supplied from TOT when I signed up for ADSL. It is a BILLION BiPAC 5210S Duel-Port ADSL2+ Modem/Router if this is of some help.

That rules out the WiFi being the problem...