IP Conflict 0X00000264: Two machines got the same IP

You're getting ERROR_IP_ADDRESS_CONFLICT2 (0X00000264) and your network connection drops, slows to a crawl, or just stops working. The message is blunt: There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network.

What's actually happening here is that two devices — could be your PC, a printer, a phone, a smart TV, anything with a network stack — both think they own the same IP address. The router can't route packets to two places at once, so it either drops traffic for both or picks one and starves the other. You lose.

I've seen this most often on home networks where someone set a static IP on their gaming console or a network printer, and the router's DHCP server later handed that same address to someone else. Or you plug into a hotel or office Wi-Fi with a massive DHCP pool that's exhausted. Let's nail down the cause and kill it.

Cause #1: DHCP lease conflict — restart your router and renew your IP

This is the most common cause. Your router's DHCP server assigned your PC an IP that another device already claimed, because either the lease expired on the router side but the other device kept using it, or the DHCP pool wrapped around and started re-issuing addresses too soon.

Don't overthink this. The fastest fix is a full power cycle of your router and a DHCP release/renew on your PC.

1. Hard reboot the router. Unplug it for 30 seconds. Plug it back in. Wait 2 minutes for it to fully boot. This clears the DHCP lease table and forces all devices to re-request IPs.
2. Release and renew your IP on Windows. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

This forces your PC to drop its current IP and ask for a fresh one. The reason step 2 works after step 1 is that the router now has a clean lease table, so your PC gets an address that no one else is using.

If that doesn't fix it, check if you still get the error. If yes, move to cause #2.

Cause #2: Static IP overlap — someone hard-coded the same IP

This happens when you (or someone) set a static IP on a device — like a printer, a media server, or a security camera — and the router later hands out that exact IP via DHCP. The static device doesn't care about DHCP, so both devices keep shouting that the address is theirs.

The fix is to find which device has the static IP and either change it to use DHCP, or set it to an IP outside your router's DHCP pool range.

First, find your current IP and the conflicting IP. Open Command Prompt and run:

arp -a

Look for the IP that's conflicting (you can usually see it in the error message or in Event Viewer under System logs). The ARP table shows recent MAC addresses associated with IPs. If you see one IP with two different MAC addresses, that's your conflict.

Now, find the static offender. Check these devices in order:

• Network printers — often have a web admin page where someone set a static IP
• Game consoles — Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch allow manual IP config
• Home servers or NAS boxes — many run on static IPs by default
• Smart home hubs — some hubs (like older Hue bridges) hard-code an IP

Once you find it, change it to Obtain an IP automatically (DHCP). If you absolutely need a static IP, set it to an address outside the DHCP range. Most home routers use 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.254 as the pool, so use something like 192.168.1.10 through 192.168.1.99 for static devices.

Cause #3: Exhausted DHCP pool — too many devices on a small subnet

This one's less common but I run into it on crowded hotel Wi-Fi, conference networks, and cheap routers with tiny DHCP pools. The router's DHCP server runs out of available IPs and starts recycling old ones that are still in use, causing conflicts.

Check your router's DHCP settings. Log into the admin panel (usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1), look for DHCP settings, and see the pool size. A typical home router defaults to a /24 subnet with 254 addresses, but some cheap ones limit the pool to 50 or 100 IPs. If you have 30 guests on the Wi-Fi plus 10 smart bulbs, you're out of room.

The fix is to increase the DHCP pool size or reduce the lease time. Set the lease time to 30 minutes instead of 24 hours on a temporary network, so IPs recycle faster when devices leave. On your own network, make sure the pool covers your expected device count. If you have more than 254 devices, you need to change the subnet mask to a /23 or smaller. Don't do that unless you know what you're doing — breaking the subnet can lock you out.

Alternatively, reduce the number of devices. Disconnect old phones or IoT devices you don't use anymore. They still hold DHCP leases.

Quick-Reference Summary Table

That's it. You won't need to touch the registry or run any third-party tools for this one. The root cause is almost always a simple IP assignment mistake. Fix that, and the error vanishes.