[ Fixed ] There Is An IP Address Conflict With Another System On The Network

Trouble:

We received a problem from one of our readers saying that whenever he tries to connect to Internet using his broadband modem, he gets an error saying:

Windows-System Error : There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network

See the image below, this notification usually appears at the bottom right corner in system tray.

The reason is very simple, as the error says, the IP address conflict is there, it means that there are more than one devices, modems or routers or laptops which exist at the same IP address as is your computer. In this post we are going to tell you how to diagnose and fix this issue.

Fix:

To fix this issue you first of all need to count the number of devices that are on the network which you use. By devices we mean, anything connected to the network through wires or wi-fi. These devices can be laptop, a computer, a wi-fi router, a broadband router, or any other device on LAN like an I-phone or any other wifi enabled phone.

All these devices when connect to the network, they all use an IP address, which can be assigned to them as and when they connect to network (through DHCP technology, recommended) or they can be allocated in a fixed fashion.

IP address conflict arises mostly in case of fixed IP address allocation, so to avoid such errors, you should use DHCP technology on your devices, or else, if you need to use fixed IP allocation because of some reasons, then make sure that each device has a unique IP address.

In this post, we tell you how to enable DHCP on your computer/laptops and enable the same on your wired or wireless router.

Enable DHCP On Router

Access your router by typing its IP address in the browser, typically its 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1, whichever is applicable to your router, and set the WAN settings to use Enable DHCP, the screen may vary in your case, but might look something like this:

This will make the router to assign the IP address to every new device that connects to it, but the device should also be using DHCP. To enable it, see the section below.

Automatic Assign IP On Computer

On Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Network Connections, right click on LAN connection and click properties.

For Windows Vista , go to Control Panel > Network Sharing Center > Manage Network Connections and right click on the LAN connection that you use

This will give you a Network Connection Properties window like one below:

Click on TCP/IPv4 and press the Properties button, this will open TCP/IPv4 properties windos as below:

Select the option with options “Obtain an IP address automatically” and restart your computer. This will fix the problem.

Author + Admin: Abhishek Bhatnagar
Hi, I am a Software Engineer by profession and blogger by passion, I write about computer tips and tricks and solutions for computer problems. You can connect with me at twitter or know more about me on www.abhishekbhatnagar.com.