"IP address conflicts with machine address"...what the heck does this mean????

[shocksyde]

i moved into college 2 weeks ago and had no probs with the ethernet connection. however, in the past day i've been getting errors that say "IP address xx.xx.xx.xx conflicts with machine address xx.xx.xx.xx". sometimes the connection will fail and i'll have to restart, sometimes i'll just click "ok" and it'll work again...but then the error messages come like 5 times a minute. what's goin on?

[waferdog]

It sounds to me that you are getting conflicting IP addresses with another machine on campus. I'm assuming they are using DHCP on campus, but I would guess that some people are using static ips, which cause this error when they get on the network, if they are using ips in the DHCP pool. It also could be that you are the one using a static ip, in which case you might want to talk to the network admin on campus.

[JimG]

Shocksyde,
Check your Network Properties (don't know which OS you're using), but look for the TCP/IP properties, and if you're college uses DHCP, make sure it's set to accept the DHCP address, and not using a static IP. Also, useful little program in Win98, from the Run box, type "winipcfg /all" (without the quotes), it will list the settings for your NIC. If you're using Win2k or NT, get to a DOS window (cmd in the run box), and type ipconfig /all . . does the same thing.
Also, if your college's IT dept. is good (mine isn't), they should be able to help you.
Good luck.