conflict between windows and mac on the same dlink router

[winwintoo]

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

 

[BlueRevolution]

Sounds more like a roommate conflict than an ethernet conflict to me.

There are no Mac viruses and there is no way for your son to pass any of these non-existent viruses on to his roommate. Conversely, your son is immune to his roommate's viruses.

As for the technical stuff... sounds like an IP address conflict. Make sure both computers are set to use DHCP and don't have an IP address set. On Mac OS X, that's under  -> System Preferences -> Network -> Ethernet -> (configure) Using DHCP.

 

[winwintoo]

Sounds more like a roommate conflict than an ethernet conflict to me.

There are no Mac viruses and there is no way for your son to pass any of these non-existent viruses on to his roommate. Conversely, your son is immune to his roommate's viruses.

As for the technical stuff... sounds like an IP address conflict. Make sure both computers are set to use DHCP and don't have an IP address set. On Mac OS X, that's under  -> System Preferences -> Network -> Ethernet -> (configure) Using DHCP.

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