Duplicate name exists even after changing the name

[Shadowraze]

Hello! I have a medium sized network with several different OS's residing on it.
Everyday a few of the computer will error with "A duplicate name exists on the network:" A quick Google search shows the same answer EVERYWHERE on the internet. So I changed the names of a few of the computers too something I knew was unique.
Still though the problem persists/ it afters the two XP bases computers the most, but my main workstations (windows 7 sp1) has had this error a few times, although it appears to have left for a while.

I have a feenas server but Active directory is not turned on.
My router is a e4200. I was using DHCP server on there (and would very much still like to) although I have turning it off, rebooted both the router and the computers but to no avail...
Thanks!

 

[eibgrad]

Try flushing all your network buffers (using Win7, you'll probably have to use an elevated/Administrative command prompt).

arp -d *
nbtstat -R
ipconfig /flushdns

... then reboot. Do this for every Windows machine.

 

[Shadowraze]

Try flushing all your network buffers (using Win7, you'll probably have to use an elevated/Administrative command prompt).

arp -d *
nbtstat -R
ipconfig /flushdns

... then reboot. Do this for every Windows machine.

Thanks for the response!, I tried this, but the error message still persists. Is there anything I should do on the router?

 

[eibgrad]

What you might try is installing Wireshark to see if you can detect this happening on the netbios naming service (NBNS). You can actually see the various broadcasts and responses and perhaps get a clue where the problem is.

 

[Shadowraze]

What you might try is installing Wireshark to see if you can detect this happening on the netbios naming service (NBNS). You can actually see the various broadcasts and responses and perhaps get a clue where the problem is.

Alright! Thanks again for the help!
I am sorry it took so long to respond..
but I have tried renaming my computers but I believe the underlying problem is, I have recently discovered that all my machines are getting their names appended with:
"Wavecable.(NAME)"
I have a Cisco e4200v2 router and the config is set to auto (dhcp) which is the only one that will work seeing as a static IP is an extra cost with them.
For now I am having trouble access printers/machines based on names and under "my network places" no machines show up.

Whereas it used to be full of all the machines and printers. And yes that was under this router.

http://i.imgur.com/ya7b8.jpg

 

[Shadowraze]

Also is there a command I can run to figure exactly which computer has the duplicate name?

 

[Shadowraze]

Best answer selected by Shadowraze.

 

[Christopher Pilot]

I just had this issue occur myself on my own home network.

The problem was only presenting (completely out of the blue) on my wife's notebook computer, and then only she had the wireless connection and wired LAN connection going at the same time. I assumed it was her workstation getting two IP addresses using the same NetBios name. Yes, I realize that should not be a problem, but it seemingly was. It disabled all network printing/filesharing from/to this computer as well. I tried a variety of different solutions (page after page of Google results) to resolve this problem to no avail.

The problem turned out to be that my home workgroup had the same name as one of my wireless routers. For example, my workgroup name was BUBBANET and I named one of my wireless routers BUBBANET (and then the other two wireless routers were named BUBBANET2 and BUBBANET3). My home network has been setup this way for almost six years now, so I'm not sure why it was a problem all of sudden and why it was only with her notebook, because my desktop computer never encountered this error even though it is in the same workgroup.

I suspect it was a Windows update somewhere along the line that caused this to start happening out of the blue. Anyway, my suggestion would be to think about more than just workstation name, because it apparently can possibly be a lot more complicated than that. I would verify the name of all devices, workgroups, etc., and make sure there are not duplicates.

Good luck and hope this helps someone.