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Do you have to deal with IP address conflicts on a daily basis?
Are mobile devices in the workplace leading to an increase in duplicate
IP's?
Are human errors resulting in incorrect address assignments?
Does that outdated spreadsheet make you want to scream?
If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions,
then you know how difficult it is to manage IP addresses.
An IP address conflict happens when two or more devices in your network have
have the same IP Address.
This will cause the affected machines to experience erratic or complete loss of
network connectivity.
The fact is—IP address conflicts can wreak havoc on your network.
And they can impact any system on the network that has the misfortune of
having a duplicate IP address, including laptops,
printers, VoIP phones,
and critical servers.
Imagine the business impact if one of your mission-critical services goes down due
to an IP address conflict! There are several main causes of IP address
conflicts.
Bring-Your-Own-Device (or BYOD) phenomenon is typically a "home"
laptop or tablet that still has a static IP address assigned.
This may generate a duplicate IP when connecting to the corporate network.
A DHCP Server misconfiguration occurs when two DHCP servers
are managing the same IP subnet or segment with overlapping IP addresses.
And there's always human error such as a Network admin that makes a mistake
when assigning an IP or forgets to update the spreadsheet.
Resolving IP address conflicts can be time-consuming and extremely frustrating.
First, you must determine which two machines or devices caused the conflict
and find the associated MAC addresses.
If you're fortunate enough to have the MAC address, the first step would be
to unplug one of the devices. Then, use another machine within the same subnet
to PING the IP address in question.
In some cases, there will be no DNS name provided or the ICMP protocol
is blocked on the firewall.
with the mac address information
you can go to the switch or wireless AP and block that port.
Doing this will allow the original device to use its correct IP address
without the second device vying for it.
Instead of doing this manually,
why not have IPAM do it for you?
With it's active IP conflict detection and immediate alerting capabilities,
SolarWinds IP Address Manager can protect your network from IP address conflicts.
Identify and resolve conflicts before they cause a major network disruption in
your environment.
Visit www.solarwinds.com for a free trial of IP Address Manager.