Can't get 2 donated computers to DHCP?

[Paul Victorey]

For whatever reason, these computers won't DHCP. I tell it to obtain an IP automatically, and it never even tries. Winipcfg has all buttons except OK and Cancel grayed out (i.e. I cannot manually release/renew the adapter).

I plan to try to uninstall the network cards and reinstall, is there another method? A registry setting, perhaps? I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to do.

This happens on 2 different computers, which are mostly identical in configuration.

[HAL9000]

What kind of NIC's, brand? ISA/PCI?

[Paul Victorey]

You beat me to it, I was just about to add some info.

3com Etherlink III 3C950b (3C950b-TPO to be specific) cards, 16 bit ISA, PnP mode. Using the drivers that were previously installed because I have no driver disks.

[HAL9000]

You will have to go to the 3Com site to get the drivers. Their configuration most likely isn't matching what Windows is trying to assign them. From DOS, run the configuration tool and match the hardware configuration to what Windows is asigning them.

[Paul Victorey]

I'll try that -- but I would think that in such a situation the card would not work at all. It works fine for all other protocols, and works fine if I specify an IP address, it just won't DHCP.

I'll check out their config/diagnostic tools.

[Paul Victorey]

As an update, I downloaded the disks that normally shipped, and I ran their installation and configuration programs. Didn't help, the diagnostics program lacks a DHCP diagnostic, and all other diagnostics test OK.

Still the same prob -- can't automatically obtain an IP address. And it never even seems to try; usually on a p-100, if it fails to get an IP you can see slowdown as it waits for an IP, there is none.

Interestingly, durind install there was a DHCP check, which passed. Why it won't work now is beyond me...

[HAL9000]

Strange, but you're right, if the other protocols are working, so should DHCP.

[Floppyman]

Hi Paul,

Have you checked on the other hand, whether the computer the 2 others are supposed to get an IP from, it's actually working correctly? Is all the cabling etc. setup correctly? HTH

[bob]

From a dos window

Ipconfig /Release
Ipconfig /Renew

[FreakyMonkey]

drivers for your cards: Just in case: http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/d...sku=3C509B-TPC

[Paul Victorey]

Thanks FM, those were the drivers I got earlier today.

Flop -- all other PCs DHCP just fine, and these computers can see the whole netbeui network, so they should be able to DHCP. As I said, I don't think it's even trying, because normally a machine of that era will experience slowdowns as it waits for a DHCP server to reply to its requests.

Bob- when I get in tomorrow I'll try that. It's odd that winipcfg doesn't allow me to release/renew.

I actually found a lot of people had probs with this card in Linux, again with it not wanting to DHCP. But it's odd because this is a fairly well-known and well-used card, and does not seem to give most people these issues. And all the DHCP problems I found were linux-related, this is in win 95 (retail ver).

Tomorrow I will also try to disable PnP and manually set the IRQ/memory addresses for the card, and see if it works then.

[bob]

Winipcfg means win9x. Check for real mode drivers or incorrect drivers.
DHCP does look for the last server on the same subnet.......so if the subnet is different or not specified it will fail. It is hard to find (the old ip/subnet) in the registry....found it before and think it was a value in hex.

I would remove all networking and reinstall over the old because time is more important now - I used to demand full knollege of all errors until I was born again and realized that my mind is not a database of microsoft programming errors.

[Paul Victorey]

Tried that, still having problems. The stupid thing is, during install it runs tests, it succeeds at both the DHCP test AND the DNS test -- and because the DNS server can only be reached through TCP/IP, TCP/IP itself obviously works.

I'm thinking somehow it thinks it's supposed to have a static IP -- thus, when I try to tell it to use a dynamic IP, it thinks I've given it a static IP of 0.0.0.0 and it won't DHCP to get a real IP.

The only other thing I can think of is trying to reinstall the OS, but that means I have to find drivers for all the hardware first.

[FreakyMonkey]

Paul,

On your LAN, how many machines do you actually have? Also, do they have/need to have outside access (inet)? Perhaps you should just assign some IP's to them.

In the lab here, we've got 70+ machines all running DHCP, but some of the earlier cards don't groove with our Win2K server. Specifically the DEC cards. Can you pull the cards and check their nic chipsets? Maybe they're some freaky subset of the 3Cx ISA's..

I've got a driver library if you are looking for spec. hardware drivers. Just give me a list, and I can point you to drivers. (except winmodems, you have to get those from reboot (http://reboot.topcities.com/).

[Paul Victorey]

Well, total on the LAN there are about 40 machines, I'm responsible for about 15 of them, and our file server. These machines should have inet access -- not an absolute requirement, but at the very least the people getting these machines would probably like to check email.

I found all the drivers I needed for the various cards, and I prepped and tested a boot disk for the machines, so as soon as I go in tomorrow I'm gonna nuke 'em (full format + reinstall) unless I can think of something else to try, but I think a reinstall would be fastest at this point. I was considering it anyway for one of the two machines, as it was going to require a lot of uninstallation and configuration changes anyhow.

[bob]

http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q167/0/14.ASP

To be honest I would just ghost the sucker.

[Paul Victorey]

Bob -- that article wasn't the cause -- these computers were static IP'd before, and well outside of the subnet range that we operate under.

Gave up trying to work on it and decided to do a total reformat/reinstall. Finished it on one of the 2 PCs, went pretty smoothly. Had an oddity whereby it didn't like the drivers I downloaded for the vid card, but the win95 CD had drivers for the card which worked, so all seems to be well and good.

After a reinstall, it DHCPs just fine. So tomorrow the other PC gets its brains wiped.

[bob]

Your dhcp server error log should show the reason. I may not have read the posts close enough - very short on time.

[Paul Victorey]

Well, in any event it's working now.

The problem wasn't the DHCP server, the problem was the PCs would never even send the DHCP request in the first place.

Reformat solved that and a few other more minor issues.

[bob]

Probably an old bug in M$. If they would fix their bugs instead of requiring buying the next version with it's own set of bugs they would not have people like me hate them - but still have to use them - and that makes me irate.