conflict between windows and mac on the same dlink router

My son recently moved to Taiwan and is staying with friends. The apartment has a d-link router. My son has a MacBook Pro, his room-mate has a Windows computer, both connect to the d-link router using Ethernet.

A conflict has erupted. I hope you can offer some advice and prevent bloodshed.

My son gets up, turns on the router and connects to the internet. A while later, the room-mate gets up and can't connect. The room-mate insists that the Mac is causing him to not be able to connect. Tempers flare etc. and it's seems impossible to do any meaningful troubleshooting.

The room-mate insists that the problem only started with my son's arrival. Also, the room-mate is concerned that viruses are getting into his computer because of the Mac being connected.

So has anyone heard of a conflict when both computers are connected vie ethernet?

I know. But aside from the usual "get a mac" line, what can we do.

Moving isn't an immediate option.

Margaret

 

I agree about the real nature of the conflict

I will pass on the information about the IP address.

I'm wondering if what they have is a switch instead of a router - would a switch allow more than one computer at a time? It's been a long time since I had a switch.

Margaret