IP address conflict

turbojimmy wrote:
The hotspot should be acting as a router, which like it or not is a "network" :)

If the ipconfig/release ipconfig/renew sequence does not work then you need to reset your router (hotspot). There should be a way to access the hotspot to see what devices it's granted access to. Restarting it will force those devices to request new IP addresses and should resolve the conflict.

My best guess at this point is the hotspot hasn't been configured to use passwords and is totally open to anyone within range. Most likely someone else is using it because it showed up as available on their computer and didn't have any protection to prevent them from doing so.