Eircom Broadband, only one ip address?

Usjes

Hi,

I don't have much info I'm afraid, but maybe if this is a common problem someone might recognise it. A friend has broadband with Eircom and uses a WiFi router to connect to two different machines; a Windows laptop and a MacBook. What they find however is that they can only use one device at a time. ie. if the Mac is currently using the Web and then they turn on the Windows laptop the Mac looses its internet connection with a message something like 'another device on the network is using your ip address'. Similarly if the laptop is using the web and then the MacBook is started up the laptop looses its connection. They are not very technically savvy but I have suggested that when the laptop gets knocked off to open a DOS box and try:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

I have no experience with mixing Apple and Windows devices on the same network but there shouldn't be any problems should there ?
It may be that for some reason the router is only capable of allocating a single ip address, if so the above wont work, it will probably just knock the other device back off, is there some config that would be used on routers that would cause them to only allocate the same single ip-address no matter how many devices are connected ?

Anyone have any ideas ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

DeepBlue

Usjes wrote: »

I have no experience with mixing Apple and Windows devices on the same network but there shouldn't be any problems should there ?

There shouldn't be any problem. I've no idea what's causing your friend's problem but it sounds like a local issue rather than an eircom one.

ted1

Have they got static ip address set in each of the devices if so, then turn on dhcp. If not then set them as different addresses.

Yakuza

It sounds exactly like that - both machines are set to use the same IP address (probably 192.168.1.1 given that eircom routers normally are 192.168.1.254). They should be set to use DHCP (which basically means that the eircom router will decide which machine gets which IP address and will manage routing of data to and from each machine and the internet). Google will help you sort out how do to this.

On the Windows machine, open up a command prompt and type

IPCONFIG /ALL

, you should see that DHCP is set to off.

Usjes

Yakuza wrote: »

It sounds exactly like that - both machines are set to use the same IP address (probably 192.168.1.1 given that eircom routers normally are 192.168.1.254). They should be set to use DHCP (which basically means that the eircom router will decide which machine gets which IP address and will manage routing of data to and from each machine and the internet). Google will help you sort out how do to this.

On the Windows machine, open up a command prompt and type

IPCONFIG /ALL

, you should see that DHCP is set to off.

When you say 'the same address' is this literally the exact same address '192.168.1.1' or just the same address '.1' relative to the 'Gateway address space' (if that is the correct term, ie 192.168.1.254) ?
It's just I'm having a hard time believing that two random machines would be hard-coded to use the exact same address, it seems like a huge coincidence.

Yakuza

Most home networks use addresses in the range 192.168.1.x and it's not beyond the bounds of credibility that two machines (that might have been used in other networks before) could have that same IP hardcoded at some time in their past.

homer911

Its also possible that no range has been set, leaving only 1 ip address available..

Tar.Aldarion

Usjes wrote: »

When you say 'the same address' is this literally the exact same address '192.168.1.1' or just the same address '.1' relative to the 'Gateway address space' (if that is the correct term, ie 192.168.1.254) ?
It's just I'm having a hard time believing that two random machines would be hard-coded to use the exact same address, it seems like a huge coincidence.

That same address is incredibly common, worth checking.

Kromdar

could be a PPPoE connection - these are the ones that ask for username / password before connecting - common on machines designed for an american market. using one will knock off the modem, meaning that whichever one has a PPPoE connection will take precedence over the modem. then when you connect with the other machine, the modem knocks the other off.

its common with incorrectly set up playstations/xboxes.

other than that, run ipconfig on both machines, and see if they're the same address, as others suggested.

if he has the patience, ring bb tech support. they'll tell you one way or another.