Replace cards and cables since wondering what it is would be too costly.
Bob
Hi! I'm sure there are a lot of questions LIKE this one but I've had trouble finding anything with the specific details matching up so I thought I'd start my own question thread and maybe someone would be interested in my silly computer mystery.
I'm running Windows XP on a Dell desktop that's around seven years old. It's hooked up (wired) to a router. Also connected to the router: my wife's desktop, same model, also wired. Sometimes our phones and/or my laptop are connected to the same router, wirelessly.
A few days ago, my computer stopped being able to connect to the internet consistently. I get a server-not-found message most of the time; I've fiddled with settings, reset various connections, rebooted the computer and router and modem in many combinations. Often, this gets the internet working for about thirty seconds before it craps out again. I also get consistent messages saying there is an IP address conflict with my desktop on the network.
The details are a little weirder:
--Apart from a brief outage at the beginning of this problem, my wife's desktop and my laptop have been connecting fine. No problems with either since Sunday or so (and those problems were short-lived).
--I've logged into the router on my wife's desktop (as well as my own, during one of their extremely brief windows), and it shows separate IP addresses for both desktops and whatever else is on the server (at the time, it was my phone). Even when nothing else is on/connected, I get the IP-conflict message.
--I called Time Warner (my ISP, sigh) when I thought there was a general outage. They said they can detect some minor signal problems and are sending someone out to fix it. I'm keeping the appointment but I really suspect there's something wrong with my machine rather than the connection (as I haven't had any problems on the other machines in days).
--As mentioned, whenever the connection is reset in some way, my desktop seems to pick up on it... before dropping it less than a minute later.
--I've updated my network card driver, just to be sure... like most of the possible solutions, it seemed to work for about a minute, then the internet went out again.
--I don't think it's the router, because I've tried connecting my desktop directly to the modem; same problems.
--I think the problem first turned up on Sunday, when an out of town guest had his Mac laptop hooked up to our wireless... but I don't know if that's a coincidence. I feel like it probably is, but I'm no expert.
So... what else should I be trying here? What am I not seeing? Why am I getting an IP address conflict when nothing seems to be using the same IP address as my machine?
Thanks for any insight you can give me!

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