DHCP Network card problem

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I have a PC running Windows XP. The network card is a realtek chip on the motherboard.

Here is the problem:

The NIC works correctly, if I manually configure it with a static IP address, and name servers. If I change the driver to use DHCP, the interface hangs when trying to renew the IP address. I've tried disabling/re-enabling, rebooting, removing the interface (including switching off in the BIOS) and re-installing, but to no avail.

Thing is, this used to work some time ago, and I've no idea why it doesn't work now.

My PC is on a LAN behind a Netgear FVS 114 router/switch (which is connected to my cable modem). The router is configured to act as a DHCP server, and three other devices on my LAN are able to use this DHCP service. One of those devices is a laptop that dual boots between Win XP and Solaris, and both OS's can use DHCP to configure the network interface.

I've checked the router configuration, and can find nothing which would prevent the PC from using DHCP, and I can't find any WinXP config that would stop it working either (although I'm not WinXP networking expert). I've also tried upgrading the network driver to the latest version.

Nothing has changed on my LAN - the IP address range in use is the same, the subnet hasn't changed. It could be a hardware problem possibly, but I doubt that given manual configuration works.

Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks,
Mut.

[Splash]

you got a firewall installed on the PC blocking DHCP requests or something? Does Ethereal give you any clues?

[abeacock]

Have you cleared the DHCP known hosts entries on the router? If your previous static ip is in the same range as the DHCP ones then I suppose that could cause some problems.

Enable DHCP on your PC, reboot, and then reset the DHCP known hosts list on the router. That should force all clients to request an ip address and for the router to reassign them with a new lease.

[Moby-Dick]

if you want to go in depth you'll want to get an ethereal trace and see how far you get through DORA

[Mutley]

if you want to go in depth you'll want to get an ethereal trace and see how far you get through DORA

I think I may have to do something like that.

abeacock: Tried resetting the router, which didn't change anything - thanks for the suggestion though!

Splash: I don't have a personall firewall running on my PC, just antivirus, so I know its not that. I'm just about to give ethereal a go.

[Mutley]

after some more digging around, I finally figured out that it was my fault! These problems usually are...

It seems that some time ago, in a rash effort to reduce memory hogging resources in windows, I went through and turned off a bunch of unnecessary services...one of them being "DHCP Client"....oooooh dear. We live and learn!

Thanks for all the input guys.

Mut.

[dave87]

heh, that certainly explains why it didn't want to do anything then