Last Updated on May 6, 2026
If your Windows computer is suddenly showing a yellow warning triangle over your Wi-Fi icon, telling you there is an “IP Address Conflict,” or saying “Connected, no internet,” you are likely dealing with a router miscommunication.
Every device on your network relies on your router’s DHCP server to hand out a temporary, dynamic IP address.
Sometimes, the router gets confused and accidentally hands the exact same IP address to two different devices, or a digital “lease” expires and fails to reconnect properly.
Before you walk across the house to unplug your router for the fifth time, you can force your computer to drop its current network configuration and politely ask the router for a fresh, working IP address.
This process only takes a few seconds using the Windows Command Prompt. Here is exactly how to do it.
Step 1: Open the Command Prompt
To run these networking commands, we need to open the built-in Windows command line.
Click the Start button on your Windows taskbar.
Type the letters cmd into the search bar.
You will see Command Prompt appear in the results. Click it to open the black console window.
Note that you do not strictly need to run this as an Administrator for these specific commands, but it never hurts to do so.
Step 2: Release Your Current IP Address
First, we must force the computer to abandon its current, broken network connection.
Inside the black window, type the following command exactly as written and press Enter: ipconfig /release.
Your screen will populate with a few lines of text.
Do not panic if your internet completely disconnects right now or your Spotify music stops playing.
By running this command, your computer has successfully dropped its IP address, leaving it totally disconnected from the network.
Step 3: Renew Your IP Address
Now that the computer has a blank slate, we need to tell it to reach back out to the router and request a fresh network lease.
In that same black window, type the following command and press Enter: ipconfig /renew
The cursor will blink and the window might appear to freeze for about five to ten seconds.
This is completely normal. The computer is actively negotiating a new connection with your router.
Once it finishes, the screen will output your new active IPv4 Address, your Subnet Mask, and your Default Gateway.
Your internet connection should instantly come back online.
Why Did I Get the Exact Same IP Address Back?
People are often confused when they run the renew command, wait for the results, and realize the router handed them the exact same IP address they had five minutes ago.
If this happens to you, the process did not fail!
This happens because of how DHCP leases work. When you ask for a new IP address, the router looks at your computer’s physical hardware MAC address.
The router says, “Oh, I remember you. I still have your old IP address reserved in my available pool, so I am just going to give it back to you.”
Even though the numbers look identical, the underlying digital “lease” has been completely reset, which is usually enough to fix most connection errors.
You will typically only get a completely different set of numbers if you connect to a completely different router (like taking your laptop to a coffee shop).
Still Not Working? Try Flushing the DNS
If releasing and renewing your IP address did not fix your “No Internet” error, your computer’s IP address probably isn’t the culprit.
Instead, your computer might be holding onto a corrupted map of the internet.
To fix this, you need to clear out your DNS cache.
While you still have your Command Prompt window open, run this powerful command and press Enter: ipconfig /flushdns
You will get a quick success message saying the DNS Resolver Cache was flushed.
Finally, to completely reset your network adapter’s software back to factory defaults, type this final command and hit Enter: netsh winsock reset
After running that final command, restart your computer.
Between the IP renewal, the DNS flush, and the Winsock reset, your Windows machine will boot up with a perfectly clean, brand-new network connection.
