IP address conflict

My wife get's this error on her Windows 7 laptop DAILY. Sometimes 3, 4 or multiple times a day. When this happens she looses her internet connection.

The only resolve is to reboot the computer.

This issue is driving her nuts and I don't know how to fix it.

I get this from time to time on my notebook (both running the same operating system Windows 7, except mine is the starter version) but in my case the error message tends to go away on it's own after a few seconds then connects to my router and I have internet access.

Seems like the problem occurs after her computer goes into hibernation mode. She never turns it off, just closes the lid where I usually power mine down manually. When I get this error message it's usually after I close the lid then turn my computer back on. That's why I seldom see the error message on mine.

Turning the router and modem off and back on seems to "fix" her computer but I can be on my computer at the same time and still be connected to the internet.

I also tried deleting all other unencrypted internet connections under wireless management so it just connects to ours.

For what it's worth, I have an Aluratek internet radio I listen to while sleeping after working nightshift and if it's been turned off for a few days I will get a simliar error message (Cannot resolve IP address) when it tries to connect to the network. When that happens I have to turn my router and modem off and it usually fixes the problem. Until the next set of nightshifts. So there must be some relationship.

As if the router is constantly changing it's IP address.

 

OK. I did both of those things. I will give it a couple of days and see if it corrects the problem.

As of right now there is a yellow "!" on top of the wireless bars in the task manager. And the laptop has no internet access yet shows being connected to my router. If I left click on the wireless icon it shows four green bars yet no "!" as if everything is fine. Weird.

My wife had a similiar issue with her desktop computer using a USB wireless adapter. Seems Windows 7 was turning off the USB ports when it went to sleep but didn't seem to reactivate them once the computer was awaken. I turned the power management off so it would never turn the USB ports off and it corrected the problem.

 

Sounds logical. I used to know how to identify the IP address on XP but it's been so long I can't remember. And I am still figuring out all the changes with Windows 7.

 

They're both the same, drop to a command prompt and type IPCONFIG. NOTE: This will list addresses for all your adapters or whether they are disconnected.

 

I have several computers connected to this router. But only two are wireless. The rest are plugged into the router.

Should I only worry about the IP address' on the two laptops running wireless since the ones I am not having issues with are the ones plugged into the router?

My wife seems to think when her son comes up to visit and he connects his laptop to our router (via wireless) the problem get's worse.

One more thing. She says since I turned the wireless power management off, the problem has not occured. So it's too soon to tell.

 

You could try setting static IP's for those permanently connected to the router (ie not likely to connect to other networks) and setting dynamic IP's for your laptops (assuming you'll use them elsewhere). If you do this be sure to restrict the router from issuing those static IP's (eg on my setup My desktop is set to 192.168.0.2 and the router is restricted to issuing IP's from 192.168.0.3-192.168.0.255).

Basically if you don't let the router know for eg PC1 is using ..0.1 and PC1 is turned off when laptop 1 is switched on the there's every chance the router will issue ..0.1 to the laptop (which will accept any IP) and when you turn PC1 on (which assumes ..0.1 is his) you have a conflict.

However, if you're not too keen on messing around with all that give leave things as they are for the moment and see if Tony's advice works.