Unable To Connect To Internet - IP Address Conflict

nivrip

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I have an oldish PC running Win XP and used purely for crunching. It has been fine for a number of years but after a shut down two days ago it will not connect to the internet. It is picking up my Wi-Fi very well but when I click Internet I get a message stating that there is an IP Address conflict so I've tried to change the IP on the PC which will not connect but it will not change. So, I tried to connect with the working PC switched off, hoping that there would be no IP conflict but no luck. Then I tried changing the IP address on the working PC but that wouldn't change either. :confused:

I have been onto my ISP and they have checked the line and the router and all is well.

One other thing is that this faulty PC is part of a small network and I wondered if that had anything to do with IP conflicts. There is plenty about setting up a network via Control Panel but I can find nothing about uncoupling from the network. I assume that it is possible but how?

Any advice on what to do next would be appreciated.
 

Ian

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If it's an IP conflict, I think it'll be a problem with your local network, rather than anything to do with the ISP (assuming all other PCs are OK).

The first thing I'd try is to log in to the router and see if anything shows up there - it normally be set to "DHCP" mode, which means that it is in charge of handing out IP addresses to your local network. Likewise, your PC would normally be set to receive an IP address via DHCP (or "obtain an IP address automatically" as it's called in Windows XP). There's some screenshots of that here (but I think you've already been to this settings page): https://www.wikihow.com/Set-up-DHCP-Network-Settings-on-Windows-XP

All of the above assumes that you've not set IP addresses manually, which isn't normally needed.

You may be able to force the IP address renew by going to the command prompt (run "cmd") and then try the following commands:

Code:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

If that doesn't work, I'd power off the router and the XP machine (the others should be fine left on), give it a few mins, then power on the router, then power on the XP machine after a few more mins.
 

Ian

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Just another thought... if all fails, you could remove the wifi adapter from device manager and let it get re-detected (make sure you have the drivers already though). After a reboot, it'll get detected and get set up with defaults which may work :).
 

nivrip

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Ok, so I've got things going again with a connection to the internet. :)

I did try forcing the IP change as you suggested, Ian, but got nowhere with that. And tried switching off the router and the PC but again no joy.

Now, I need to ask whether changing an IP address happens very quickly or does it take some time? I was picking up the Wi-Fi with a USB dongle and almost as a last resort I decided to change to a different dongle. When I did this I got the connection that I wanted. :thumb:

But my question is, was it changing the dongle or was it a slow change of IP address? Unfortunately I didn't note down the old IP address so I'm not sure whether it has changed. I'm more than happy, however, that I've got things back to normal.

:D
 

Ian

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Glad it's back online @nivrip :D.

I suspect you changing the dongle could have fixed the problem at several potential problem points (either at the PC or router side), as it's a new network adaptor requesting a new IP address. I'm kind of curious to see if it's still working when using the old dongle... but if it's working, perhaps best not to touch it :lol:.
 

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