A duplicate name exists on the network - what does that mean? How do I fix it?

i am in a university campus at the moment and i am facing this problem 'a duplicate name exists on the network'. If i change the name of my computer and the workgroup how will i exchange information with the rest of the university workgroup?

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Change the name of your computer, not the name of your workgroup.

Leo
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Windows system error- a duplicate name exists on the Network". This could be because of a duplicate name used in the Network connection. Every computer should have a unique name in the network, in order to be identified in the Network. To resolve the issue, I suggest you change the name of the computer by performing the following:

1. On the Desktop, right-click MyComputer.
2. Choose Properties.
3. Choose the Computer Description Tab.
4. On the window displayed, click the Change button.
5. This will open another window.
6. On the displayed window, Type the new Computer Name.
7. Do not modify anything with the Workgroup box.
8. Click Apply, then O.K.

This can also happen if you have an ethernet connection, and inadvertently enable a wireless card at the same time. DHCP assigns two leases with the same name but different IP addresses. Solution is to disable the wireless, check ipconfig at the client, then delete the other lease at the server.

An article at Stanford's School of Earth Sciences gives a reason why this might continue to happen.
Link to it here
http://pangea.stanford.edu/computerinfo/resources/network/faq/windupname.html

Actually, I had the same problem this morning when I got to work. I tried all means but none work. I decided to change my IP address and domain name.. Guess, what happened.. it worked perfectly and all is back to normal.. Thanks for your thread though.

I have worked/asked/searched this problem on our network for two - three weeks.

The solution was surprising and had nothing(?) to do with this error message.

By isoliting a small part of the network, using new cables and a new switch everything was OK, and I could continue from this.

What caused the error message?; a damaged cabletip(I don't know the English name) from the 3Com AP to the switch, tightly bundled cables, old equimment or a a pupil/teacher who has put a cable into the wrong connection. I am not sure, but my bet is the cable from the AP to the switch.

I hope this could be of help for some? Let me know - - -,
eldmar@gmail.com

Thanks! I had this problem because I configured a NAS device to have a device name that matched the workgroup name. The message popped up on each computer on the network as soon as they started up. Changing the hostname on the NAS fixed the problem.

This will help you . . .

http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Windows/microsoft.public.windows.server.dns/2005-06/msg00224.html

Thank you for the info. This solved my "duplicate name" problem right away. Just thought I'd point out how sensitive the computer names are: one of my computers was called "MACHINE" and the other was called "machine." I do realize that this is the same name but naively assumed that the capital letters versus the lowercase letters would be alright-it wasn't! After changing one the problem disappeared.

Thanks again!

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