IP Conflict -- home network goes down

[jay santos]

My home network keeps going down. I think it's related to IP conflict.

It just started in the last few weeks. First, I realized whenever my daughter's IPAD went online, it started screwing things up. So I banned her from using wireless for the time being (bad dad i know). Then my main laptop started causing it, so I only plug it in with cable. Now I have to use my alternate laptop, and it's causing it--even when I plug it in with cable. I've turned off all wireless devices.

Any advice? Or suggestions on what to figure it out?

[Uncle Ted]

My home network keeps going down. I think it's related to IP conflict.

It just started in the last few weeks. First, I realized whenever my daughter's IPAD went online, it started screwing things up. So I banned her from using wireless for the time being (bad dad i know). Then my main laptop started causing it, so I only plug it in with cable. Now I have to use my alternate laptop, and it's causing it--even when I plug it in with cable. I've turned off all wireless devices.

Any advice? Or suggestions on what to figure it out?

Do you have two DHCP servers (e.g. routers configured to do DHCP) on your network? If so, they may be independently allocating the same IP address to your wireless devices if you are getting IP conflict error messages on your laptops, etc. Try turning off DHCP on all but one of your routers or just turning all your routers except for one to see if the problem goes away.

If you need to run two DHCP servers then configure them with different IP address ranges that don't overlap.

[doctorcoug]

Or, do any of your devices not use DHCP? If two devices use the same IP address, you'll get an IP conflict error.

[jay santos]

I have a Comcast box which goes to a Cisco router which has four LAN lines at the moment with no wireless devices at all (for fear of triggering the IP conflict). It still is going out from time to time. It seems to go in a pattern where it goes out every 5 or 10 minutes for like an hour, then it's fine for the rest of the day.

[Uncle Ted]

I have a Comcast box which goes to a Cisco router which has four LAN lines at the moment with no wireless devices at all (for fear of triggering the IP conflict). It still is going out from time to time. It seems to go in a pattern where it goes out every 5 or 10 minutes for like an hour, then it's fine for the rest of the day.

So why do you believe there is an IP address conflict?

[Jennerstein]

I have a Comcast box which goes to a Cisco router which has four LAN lines at the moment with no wireless devices at all (for fear of triggering the IP conflict). It still is going out from time to time. It seems to go in a pattern where it goes out every 5 or 10 minutes for like an hour, then it's fine for the rest of the day.

So there's absolutely no wireless signal at all? You completely turned off your wireless portion of the router? No wireless SSID is being broadcasted? All your connections are Ethernet based?

I've bee trying to trouble shoot what I believe was a DHCP type conflict for the last few months. Originally, I was bridging Linksys WRT54G routers together to provide full wireless coverage to our apartment. With the routers were flashed with DD-WRT, I was getting connection issues in the evening. Really bizarre stuff, couldn't pinpoint the connection issues at all. I'd reset everything, and then 10 minutes later I'd have trouble connecting to the Internet.

I finally tried installing Tomato instead of WRT54G and setting up the routers to use WDS (Wireless Distribution System). Still had the issues until I switched the encryption from WPA TKIP to WPA AES based on a thread I read on an internet forum. That cleared up my problem, although I have no idea why.

Recently, I have seen some sporatic connection issues in the evening agan. Usually it goes away if I reset my computer or reset the bridged router. I do suspect though, that a rogue phone app is sucking up a lot of a bandwidth. I tracked down what I believe is the cause, the Taskos app on my wife's phone used up 3 GB of data last month. Holy cow.

Anyway, hopefully the above helps in some way.

[doctorcoug]

I have a Comcast box which goes to a Cisco router which has four LAN lines at the moment with no wireless devices at all (for fear of triggering the IP conflict). It still is going out from time to time. It seems to go in a pattern where it goes out every 5 or 10 minutes for like an hour, then it's fine for the rest of the day.

So, unless you have two devices that have a static IP address that is the same, this is not a conflict. Doesn't even sound like it.

Go buy a new router...that is the easiest thing to do.

[jay santos]

So why do you believe there is an IP address conflict?

Because at the time it started happening, I was frequently getting an IP error conflict popup on my laptop. I haven't seen that error since I plugged that laptop in, but I'm assuming that's what is happening.

[jay santos]

So there's absolutely no wireless signal at all? You completely turned off your wireless portion of the router? No wireless SSID is being broadcasted? All your connections are Ethernet based?

I've bee trying to trouble shoot what I believe was a DHCP type conflict for the last few months. Originally, I was bridging Linksys WRT54G routers together to provide full wireless coverage to our apartment. With the routers were flashed with DD-WRT, I was getting connection issues in the evening. Really bizarre stuff, couldn't pinpoint the connection issues at all. I'd reset everything, and then 10 minutes later I'd have trouble connecting to the Internet.

I finally tried installing Tomato instead of WRT54G and setting up the routers to use WDS (Wireless Distribution System). Still had the issues until I switched the encryption from WPA TKIP to WPA AES based on a thread I read on an internet forum. That cleared up my problem, although I have no idea why.

Recently, I have seen some sporatic connection issues in the evening agan. Usually it goes away if I reset my computer or reset the bridged router. I do suspect though, that a rogue phone app is sucking up a lot of a bandwidth. I tracked down what I believe is the cause, the Taskos app on my wife's phone used up 3 GB of data last month. Holy cow.

Anyway, hopefully the above helps in some way.

There is a wireless signal, i've just turned off all devices. Now that i think of it, my son's IPOD might be still on.

[Jennerstein]

What type of encryption are you using then? WEP, WPA?

I would login to the router and check all the MAC addresses associated with the router. Verify that you do not have any rogue devices on there that should not be on there.

I would also check that none of the computers have any spyware or viruses.

If the above steps don't yield any clues, then it might be time to try a new router.

[jay santos]

To solve this, I bought a new router and it worked. I never got that error again. I was using a Cisco and I bought a Netgear. Everything worked fine until I just bought a new laptop, and now I'm getting behavior that seems like the same IP conflict issue.

Netgear router

Windows 7 home network.

Three computers plugged in via LAN. They work fine.

One laptop working through wireless (along with various smart phones, IPAD, IPOD, etc the kids have). Everything working fine.

Then I buy another laptop and add it into the mix and suddenly the existing laptop and the new laptop are both going down at the same time. The wireless works, I have internet, then they go down. They still say connected but the internet does not work and I get the little yellow exclamation point saying "No access". If I right click and say troubleshoot problems it goes through the diagnostic check and comes back saying it fixed my problem. It works for a while, two minutes, 10 minutes, or whatever, and then it goes out again.

[BigFatMeanie]

To solve this, I bought a new router and it worked. I never got that error again. I was using a Cisco and I bought a Netgear. Everything worked fine until I just bought a new laptop, and now I'm getting behavior that seems like the same IP conflict issue.

Netgear router

Windows 7 home network.

Three computers plugged in via LAN. They work fine.

One laptop working through wireless (along with various smart phones, IPAD, IPOD, etc the kids have). Everything working fine.

Then I buy another laptop and add it into the mix and suddenly the existing laptop and the new laptop are both going down at the same time. The wireless works, I have internet, then they go down. They still say connected but the internet does not work and I get the little yellow exclamation point saying "No access". If I right click and say troubleshoot problems it goes through the diagnostic check and comes back saying it fixed my problem. It works for a while, two minutes, 10 minutes, or whatever, and then it goes out again.

Try assigning one of them a static IP address that's outside the DHCP range and see if that prevents the issue. That way you'll know if it's some type of IP address conflict.

[jay santos]

Try assigning one of them a static IP address that's outside the DHCP range and see if that prevents the issue. That way you'll know if it's some type of IP address conflict.

I do that in my router control board, right? the 168.1.1.2 thingy?

[old_gregg]

control panel --> network and internet --> network connection --> right click connection to properties --> highlight IPv4-->properties

make sure it's set to obtain an ip (rather than using a static) automatically and that you're obtaining the dns address automatically (i.e. through your router).

[clackamascoug]

To solve this, I bought a new router and it worked. I never got that error again. I was using a Cisco and I bought a Netgear. Everything worked fine until I just bought a new laptop, and now I'm getting behavior that seems like the same IP conflict issue.

Netgear router

Windows 7 home network.

Three computers plugged in via LAN. They work fine.

One laptop working through wireless (along with various smart phones, IPAD, IPOD, etc the kids have). Everything working fine.

Then I buy another laptop and add it into the mix and suddenly the existing laptop and the new laptop are both going down at the same time. The wireless works, I have internet, then they go down. They still say connected but the internet does not work and I get the little yellow exclamation point saying "No access". If I right click and say troubleshoot problems it goes through the diagnostic check and comes back saying it fixed my problem. It works for a while, two minutes, 10 minutes, or whatever, and then it goes out again.

I got the NetGear set up, about 4 months ago. Solved all my problems too.