Odd behavior w/ conflicting IP Addresses?

[Linn Kubler]

Hi,

I'm running a mixed environment, 2 DC's, one Windows 2003 Server the other
Windows 2000 Server with a few other member servers, mixed Windows 2003 and
2000 Servers. My clients are a mix of Windows 2000 Pro's, Windows XP Pro's
and WynTerms.

The problem I'm having is with one laptop w/ docking station running Windows
2000 Pro sp4. Today it gave the user messages indicating that it had a
problem with the network and that the connection to the Exchange server was
lost.

I checked the event log and found the following error recorded 3 times in
just a few minutes:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Tcpip
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4199
Date: 8/1/2006
Time: 9:58:15 AM
User: N/A
Computer: DON-LAPTOP
Description:
The system detected an address conflict for IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.177 with
the system having network hardware address 00:13:21:F4:84:11. Network
operations on this system may be disrupted as a result.

I tracked down this MAC address to a computer that no one was using this
morning and was not turned on. I checked the DHCP leases and both computers
were listed but didn't have conflicting addresses at all.

Oh, maybe I should mention we are running DHCP on both DC's, each with their
own address range so they don't conflict. (or at least I don't believe they
should)

Any suggestions? I don't even know where to look from here. Could it be
the network card in the docking station is failing? I also checked the
switch where the laptop is plugged in and it was not recording any error
messages either.

Thanks in advance,
Linn

 

[Danny Sanders]

If you have WINS set up on your network check there.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[Linn Kubler]

Danny,

Thanks for the suggestion, what is it I'm looking for? I've never really
messed with WINS before, is it still required in an Active Domain network?
I have DNS running on my DC servers too.

Thanks,
Linn

 

[Danny Sanders]

Look for a listing for the IP address "XXX.XXX.XXX.177 " that points to any
object other than the laptop having problems and delete that entry.

WINS is not needed for AD unless you have services or apps that rely on
WINS.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[Linn Kubler]

Ok, for the IP address ending in 177, the IP address in question, I see 5
entries:
DON-LAPTOP [20h] File Server
POWEL [03h] Messenger
DON-LAPTOP$ [03h] Messenger
DON-LAPTOP [03h] Messenger
DON-LAPTOP [00h] WorkStation

DON-LAPTOP is the name of the laptop in question and Powel is the user name
of the primary user so I'm guessing these are all normal entries. I don't
see any other records with this IP address. Any thing else I should be
looking at?

Thanks much,
Linn