(I looked in the computer question sticky, and didn’t see this.)
Background: we have 3 computers at home, all running Windows XP; a linksys wireless router, and cable modem. Our internet connection keeps dropping, and my ISP (Comcast) just tells us to power cycle the modem and router, which usually works. At one point, though, we loaded up the router’s maintenance software, and did a release/renew.
In addition to the periodic dropping, though, we now see occasional popup messages saying that there’s an IP address conflict with another system on our network.
What does this mean, and how do we fix it?
Thanks…this is so much better than calling up some tech support number…
It probably just means that your Linksys router has assigned an IP to one of your computers that another was already using. This probably happened after you reset the connection on your router, during which it forgets which IPs it has assigned to which computer. To fix it, just do a DHCP renew on the computer that is complaining.
No, if you power cycle the router it should reset all the DHCP connections when it powers back up. You may want to check the computers on your network to make sure that they all are set to obtain an IP address automatically (DHCP) rather than having a fixed address specified.
Ultimately, you may find it simpler to just assign each computer an IP. It’ll certainly eliminate the conflicts and needing to reboot or renew the whole house.
The condensed version (there are slight variations between versions of Windows) is to find the TCP/IP properties on each PC and change it from “Obtain an IP address automatically” to “Use the following IP address”
Typically, you’ll want to use 192.168.1.101, 192.168.1.102, etc. for your computers. The subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway is usually the router’s IP - typically 192.168.1.1 Your ISP can provide the DNS server info.
2.4 Ghz phones operate on the same frequency range as wireless routers and frequently interfere with them. Some problems you might notice are bad wireless speeds, wireless drops, audio interference when using the phone.
That’s the reason 5.8Ghz phones popped up. Keep in mind that many 5.8 Ghz phones are really only 5.8 Ghz one way (from the receiver to the handset) and use 2.4 Ghz from the handset to the receiver so check the box carefully before purchasing one. Also note that 900 Mhz phones do not interfere with wireless routers (I switched from 2.4 to 5.8 and found out that my 5.8 was crap so I got a 900 Mhz which i’m very happy with)
Do not assume that your phone is causing the problem you described however. If you have one computer that is connected to the router via a regular ethernet / usb cable, then it wouldn’t lose internet connectivity unless the router is defective or Comcast service sucks (I’ll let you guess which is more likely
I would follow gotpasswords advice but make two changes:
Hardcode the IP addresses for each computer and don’t start at the beginning with the IP addresses. So instead of assigning the first three IP address 101, 102 and 103, pick three at random within the router’s range, or three sequential addresses but don’t start at the beginning.
Disable all the unused IP addresses available from the router.
Why?
Simple. You are on a Comcast broadband connection and you are running wireless. It is possible someone nearby maybe running their own wireless computer off of your Comcast connection and if not causing problems, exacerbating the problems.
You also eliminate others running a wireless near you from snooping within your personal virtual network. They could also be running virus and trojan zombies from your connection as well.
Yeah, yeah, you are running XP and feel comfortable with all the built-in security. So why run the router with default IP settings? Security works best when it has many layers, each layer standing pretty much on its own yet at the same time complimenting the other security layers as well.
FWIW, I was foolishly assuming that nobody was silly enough to run wireless without at least using WEP to keep the casual snoops and freeloaders out.
I do question the need to take the effort to block unused IPs. It’s not hard for a determined outsider to knock off an existing conenction and take its place, so it’s not terribly useful.
This isn’t true. DHCP has no mechanism for the server to inform the client that the address must be released early. When the client is given an address, it is also given a “lease” on the address that expires at a certain date/time. The client can expect to use that address until the lease is up. If the server reboots and forgets who it’s given the address to, you’re likely to end up with a conflict. You should renew each client to avoid this.
