Question on IP addresses

[catnapper]

I keep getting the same error on either my computer or the family's computer. It always says "IP address conflict with another system on the network"

This usually means either my or the family computer has no internet access. We close down both computers, restart the computers and restart the modem, and it seems all is well.

But I don't understand what the error message means or why it pops up. Can someone explain what an IP address is and why its in conflict?

[Craftlady]

You can have conflicts between wireless and cable box system for example. A laptop can be a wireless set up and regular pc set up on cable box or modem system. When you reset your systems and they work it tells me they are resetting their communication devices and it straightens them out. However, you shouldnt have to do that all the time to make an internet connection stay put. I would call your internet provider and have them talk you through your settings etc.

Here's an explaination about IP address I found on the net:

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An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)—in simpler terms, a computer address. Any participating network device—including routers, computers, time-servers, printers, Internet fax machines, and some telephones—can have their own unique address. Also, many people can find personal information through IP addresses.

An IP address can also be thought of as the equivalent of a street address or a phone number (compare: VoIP (voice over (the) internet protocol)) for a computer or other network device on the Internet. Just as each street address and phone number uniquely identifies a building or telephone, an IP address can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on a network.

An IP address can appear to be shared by multiple client devices either because they are part of a shared hosting web server environment or because a proxy server (e.g., an ISP or anonymizer service) acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of its customers, in which case the real originating IP addresses might be hidden from the server receiving a request. The analogy to telephone systems would be the use of predial numbers (proxy) and extensions (shared).

IP addresses are managed and created by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. IANA generally allocates super-blocks to Regional Internet Registries, who in turn allocate smaller blocks to Internet service providers and enterprises.

IP header size is 20 bytes.

[Blue_Frog]

Craftylady's explanation is great about IP addresses

Heres an explanation that I used to give to customers when I was doing tech support on the phone.

Theres different kinds of IP addreses - Internal IP and External IP. I'm going to use a hotel as an analogy. Inside the hotel are a lot of different room numbers, and each is a specific location. These numbers are used by the hotel itself to know what rooms there are -- this is like an internal IP address. Each computer inside your network is assigned a 'room number' that makes sense within your network. Each of these numbers (IP addresses) needs to be unique, since you can't have more than one 'room' with the same number.

Now, the hotel has a street address as well, and this address is used by the rest of the world to know where that hotel is. This is like your External IP address, which is assigned by your Internet Provider.

Probabally a daft explanation, but its the general idea

Your router is generally responsible for assigning IP addresses to all the devices within your network (depending on your settings), and theres a few things that could be done to stop the conflict from happening, like assigning each computer a IP address and not letting the router give them one.

It might be worth bribing the nerdy kid on your block to come and have a look at your network for you. The conflict won't hurt anything, and doing the reset like you do will reset it, however its kind of a pain in the rear for you to have to reset everything all the time