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IP address conflict

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by asltech

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While working on my computer(WIN98 OS) I get an error message that says:
"system has detected a conflict for IP address [IP address is stated] with the system having hardware address [address stated]" What can i do to fix this error? I receive it on more that 1 computer on our network with different IP address listed. Thanks in advance.

11 replies

by gary mcp

An IP address is a unique network address assigned to a pc by either a piece of software called DHCP or by an administrator, manually. What to do to fix the error depends pretty much on which method of address assignment you are using.

If you areusing manually assigned addresses, the solution is simply to assign a different address to the pcs giving the error.

If you are using DHCP-assigned addresses, it's likely that someone on your network has manually assigned an address to their pc that is included in the DHCP range. You can either remove the address from the range, or set the offending pc to an automatically assigned address.

What we often have an issue with here, since we use static addressing, is that the less concientious techs don't change the address of a machine after it's been imaged.

Hope this helps,
Gary

by gary mcp

In reply to your mail, there are a few network scanning tools available. We use NetPeek. It gives you some good info (DNS name, ip address, last user logged in, mac address, etc.), and works quite well, check out http://netpeek.netfirms.com/ But there are a whole host of IP scanning and discovery tools out there. You should be able ot find something to suit your needs perfectly.

Good Luck,
G.

by gary mcp

I've just remembered something else -When you encounter an IP conflict, the machine that has the address first keeps it, TCP/IP is then disabled on the conflicting machine. So, when you run a scan for which addresses are in use, remember that some of them won't show up in the results. But at least you'll have known good addresses to change them to.

by alpha-male

Answer #1 is 100% correct...I'd just like to add one bit of assistance. If the one of the devices that has a conflicting address *needs* to have that specific IP (a network printer, router, server etc) then you need to set up exclusions in DHCP so it will not dynamically assign those addresses.

If you don't use DHCP, make a spreadsheet and keep meticulous track of the used IPs and what they are assigned to. Update this constantly. It's your guide to the LAN!

Good luck...

by bkinsey1

Another little bit of advice. Depending on the size and complexity of your network, it can be very helpful to have some assistance in finding and identifying all the IP hosts out there. Find a cheap or free network mapping application (NetworkViewisn't bad; it's free as a demo and cheap if you buy it -- www.networkview.com -- but there are others) and scan your network. It can help you track down anything out there you may have forgotten about.

by neal2002

In addition to the above answers I've seen this happen when 2 devices are configured as DHCP servers. If your running DHCP on a server check your routers and fallwall to ensure they don't have DHCP enabled.

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