Filetonic / My computer is telling me that my IP address is being used on the network by another computer, but the other comp in my home has an IP address assigned to it as does mine. It says that I may experience network slowdowns

My computer is telling me that my IP address is being used on the network by another computer, but the other comp in my home has an IP address assigned to it as does mine. It says that I may experience network slowdowns - can you explain how this is possible!?

Kat Delong IP Addresses

An IP address is a lot like your street address, and one is given to every computer that is connected to the Internet. It will be a string of number such as 192.68.4.7. The last two numbers are what will tell you what kind of address you are using. If the second to last number is between 0 and 255 and the last number is between 1 and 254, you are using a private IP address so that you can have your own network.

You said that both computers are using the IP addresses that have been provided to you, but I want you to be sure they are different. You need to go to Start, then click on Run. In the command window, type in cmd and click OK. The command window will come up. At the prompt, type in ipconfig. You will see your IP Address listed. Do this on both computers to see if the addresses are different. If they somehow were changed and are the same, then you’re going to have to assign a new address to one of the computers. Make sure the numbers aren’t arbitrary and work with your network.

Check Your Network

If your addresses are different, then you need to check your network. Are you using wireless? If so, then you need to check the security of your network. If you don’t have security enabled, then anyone in your vicinity can log onto your system. Also see if you have any other devices that are connecting to the Internet. We have an IP phone that connects us directly to the office that could also be using the same IP address.

Use Dynamic IP Addresses

If you want to avoid this altogether, you can set your system to get dynamic IP addresses, where you are assigned a new IP address automatically each time you log on, rather than a static system like you have that keeps the same IP address all the time. You have to first set your router to use dynamic IP addresses - most of the time you can do this using your web-based router configuration. I use Netgear, and after logging onto their website, there is a menu on the left side of the screen that gives options about setting your router to get dynamic IP addresses. You need to also set your LAN to use your router as your Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server.

Once you’ve set your router correctly, you can get into your computers and set each one to get dynamic IP addresses.

Go to Start, then Control Panel and then click on Network Connections.
Right click on Local Area Connections. Choose Properties.
Find the TCP/IP and right click to choose Properties.
You want to see that Obtain IP addresses automatically and DNS Servers Automatically are selected.

In my opinion, setting your IP addresses to dynamic is a good way to avoid this problem, unless you have a specific reason for keeping them static.