wireless devices bump each other

[sixto]

When a friend comes to visit and connects his laptop to our wireless router he invariably bumps my wife's laptop off the wireless network. We've had other wireless devices come and go but only that Sony bumps off only that Dell. Is there a way to avoid thisor work around it?

I heard there's a way to request a new IP from the router. What's the command to do this?

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

[Lebenz]

You beat me to the answer. If 2 machines have the same ip address they will both disconnect with an error about another machine at Mac address …. Having the same address.

If the ip address for each computer is static, meaning it’s been recorded or coded into the computer’s tcp/ip properties, you may need to set the computer to obtain an ip address automatically.

If the address is not static, the computer is probably remembering a connection from another network. In this event open a command prompt and type

Ipconfig /release (hit enter)
Then
Ipconfig /renew (hit enter)

It takes a few seconds for each process to complete.

Alternatively, restart the computer and that should clear it

BTW, the notes above are making a huge supposition that the router is handing out the IP information. This hand out is done by way of a service called DHCP. If this service is not running on the router, then increase the ip number specified on one of the computers by 1 or 2. So for example if its currently 192.168.0.4 change it to 192.168.0.6. All the other numbers will probably stay the same.

[sixto]

Very informative.

You mistake me for the Sixto who's good at these things. How do I manually change the IP?

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

[Lebenz]

Start/settings/control panel networks
Local area network (probably) right click and select properties
Select internet protocol (tcp/ip) and properties
Either the tcp/ip properties will have the IP address, subnet and DNS numbers recorded, or it will specify to obtain them automatically.

[diametricalbenz]

If you're not required to be bound to a static address it is easier to set the computer to accept a dynamic IP address from the DHCP server. It helps avoid network conflicts as such.