DHCP server not found: autoconfiguration IP addr.

[termiflyer]

This is hard, I challenge you!! I keep having this repeated problem on several machines and several different configurations at different times. Basically, when I change something major, like add a new network interface card, I cannot talk to anything: the new interface cannot find the DHCP server, and Windows (demonstrated on XP and 2000) uses a autoconfiguration IP address (169.something). I have searched everywhere and cannot find a reasonable explanation for what is happening. Here are my different circumstances:

(1) laptop (Win 2000) connected directly to cable modem, all is good: internet connection works fine. I moved the cable from the laptop to my desktop (XP): the desktop does not obtain an IP address resulting in no communication with anything. IP address is 169 address and upon ipconfig /renew, the error DHCP server not found results. See below for ipconfig output. The fix for this case was to power cycle the cable modem.

(2) I installed a wireless router, and everything was fine using the wired connection with the same NIC. I installed a wireless NIC. The wireless link came up no problems. Same results as in #1: no IP address, autoconfiguration IP assigned, DHCP server not found. Fix for this case: research problem for 2 days, come back to computer to try a few things and boom, IP address is fine 192.168.0.x through router and all is good.

(3) Totally separate network at work: new computer wired into ethernet drop in my office ... everything fine (DHCP assigned address, all comm good). Moved this computer to a lab where I connect same NIC to 8 port switch that ultimately gets to a router on the same company network. Same result as #1 and #2: no IP address, autoconfiguration IP assigned, DHCP server not found. Fix for this case: assigned a static IP and I can talk to router (this didn't work for other cases).

There MUST be a common thing happening here, but I haven't found a good explanation for it. It was explained to me that in case #1 that the modem associated the MAC address of the original laptop with itself (or something like that) and it needed to be powered cycled. What is this association (ARP cache on the modem?)? Is a similar thing happening in the other cases?

I would appreciate any and all help!!! This one keeps coming back to me and yet there is nothing I can do about it each time it happens!! THANK YOU!



Here is the similar output for each case of ipconfig /all, ipconfig /renew, and arp -a:

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : viper
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . : xxx.xxx.com
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xxx.xxx.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network
Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.235.62
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :

C:\>ipconfig /renew

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

The following error occurred when renewing adapter Local Area Connection:
DHCP Server unreachable

C:\>arp -a
No ARP Entries Found

 

[jlanka]

(1) laptop (Win 2000) connected directly to cable modem, all is good: internet connection works fine. I moved the cable from the laptop to my desktop (XP): the desktop does not obtain an IP address resulting in no communication with anything. IP address is 169 address and upon ipconfig /renew, the error DHCP server not found results. See below for ipconfig output. The fix for this case was to power cycle the cable modem.

This is perfectly normal. The cable modem caches the MAC address of whatever device is connected to it, and won't serve an IP address to any other device. You have to power cycle it to get it to give an address to any other device (like the router, or another PC).

<pre> \|/
jlanka (. .)
___________oOOo_(_(_)_)_oOOo___________
</pre><p>

 

[CapNjacK]

(1) laptop (Win 2000) connected directly to cable modem, all is good: internet connection works fine. I moved the cable from the laptop to my desktop (XP): the desktop does not obtain an IP address resulting in no communication with anything. IP address is 169 address and upon ipconfig /renew, the error DHCP server not found results. See below for ipconfig output. The fix for this case was to power cycle the cable modem.
As was said cable modem must have the mac cleared.

(2) I installed a wireless router, and everything was fine using the wired connection with the same NIC. I installed a wireless NIC. The wireless link came up no problems. Same results as in #1: no IP address, autoconfiguration IP assigned, DHCP server not found. Fix for this case: research problem for 2 days, come back to computer to try a few things and boom, IP address is fine 192.168.0.x through router and all is good.
Not sure I'm reading this right. Are you talking about on the same machine you switched to a wireless nic and router?

(3) Totally separate network at work: new computer wired into ethernet drop in my office ... everything fine (DHCP assigned address, all comm good). Moved this computer to a lab where I connect same NIC to 8 port switch that ultimately gets to a router on the same company network. Same result as #1 and #2: no IP address, autoconfiguration IP assigned, DHCP server not found. Fix for this case: assigned a static IP and I can talk to router (this didn't work for other cases).
Not sure if you do this but when moving anything I do two things 1 if it's not a DHCP machine. 1- Do a release before you attempt to renew. 2- Clear the route table route -f

 

[termiflyer]

---------------
Not sure I'm reading this right. Are you talking about on the same machine you switched to a wireless nic and router?
---------------

Originally, we did not have a router at all and connected through the cable modem directly. I then installed a cable modem router / wireless access point. The machine I am referring to (desktop in (2)) was connected to the router via wired ethernet: everything worked fine. I then installed a wireless NIC in the same machine and ran into the difficulties that I have noted. 2-3 days later everything worked fined through the new wireless NIC.

---------------
Not sure if you do this but when moving anything I do two things 1 if it's not a DHCP machine. 1- Do a release before you attempt to renew. 2- Clear the route table route -f
---------------

Thanks for this advice. I'll keep that in mind next time I move things around.

For both cases (2) and (3) however, when the situation arises, my guess is that the NIC broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER packet and there is no DHCPOFFER response. (I wish I could have downloaded Ethereal to verify this but I couldn't connect to anything!!) The question is why not?

 

[CapNjacK]

You may wish to disable the APIPA if it's confusing the situation check out this article here for a quick how to on that down at the bottom:
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/7464/7464.html
As for sniffing if you really just want to see if you're sending and not recieving DHCP requests you can use NetMon included in windows 2000. Only difference is you won't see traffic outside of the communication of the box you run it on. As in it does not support permiscuous mode on the non pro/full version.
If you have SMS somewhere the full version of NetMon (that will sniff all traffic) is on the CD.

 

[Dev]

I think you are right about the MAC address, however it is probably not helped by powercycling the modem. The ISP usually notes the MAC of the connecting device and restrict it to this MAC only. This is done so that nobody will leech of your line (which is very easy to do). Call your ISP and add the MAC addresses that you need i.e. the router, and the other clients.

In the case of your workstation at your job, the same thing is probably happening. The net admin has restricted access to only known devices (MACs). This is done to protect the network from intrusion. Talk to your IT department for activation of the new NIC.

Dev

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