An _____ occurs when two or more devices are connected with the same IP in a computer network.

• A. IP Address conflict
• B. Subnet clash
• C. MAC collision
• D. DNS conflict

Answer: (A)

Two devices ending up using the same IP address on a local network creates an IP address conflict. IPs must be unique so that every device can be reliably identified and reached; when duplicates exist, traffic intended for that address may go to either machine or fail entirely, leading to intermittent connectivity and errors such as duplicate address warnings. The network relies on the ARP table mapping each IP to a single MAC address, so having two devices claim the same IP disrupts that mapping and causes unpredictable behavior. The usual fix is to ensure each device has a unique IP, typically by letting a DHCP server manage addresses or by carefully assigning static addresses and removing duplicates.

Other terms don’t fit this scenario: a subnet clash isn’t a standard networking issue for this, a MAC collision refers to conflicts involving hardware addresses rather than IPs, and a DNS conflict concerns domain names and name resolution rather than two devices sharing an IP.