Invalid IP Address Error Message - Please Help!

Dear Major Geeks,

We have two laptops in our home, a Gateway and an HP. We have cable internet and an open-access Lynksis router. We've had this set-up for over a year and it generally works well provided we occasionally power down and restart all of the components.

Lately a new problem has developed. If both laptops are in use (ie, using the internet), the HP occasionally displays a pop-up message that states "Invalid IP address" and the connection to the internet goes down on that laptop. If I switch the Gateway to another open-air router signal (there are several on my block), the Invalid address messages goes away on the HP and the connection is reestablished. I'm not sure what's causing this sharing conflict and always assumed that several computers can pull from the same router. If you have any advice or thoughts on this I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

Chad-roscoe

 

So both laptops are set to get IPs from the router? (no statics?,right)
With all the open wireless around are you connecting to yours?
Is someone else (your open too?) connecting with that IP?
Change your network ip address and see if that helps. 'everybody' uses 192.168.x.x go somewhere else ie 10.10, maybe.