DHCP Server

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Anyone advise me about this? I use Vista and broadband via wirless router. It all works OK apart from the occasional need to reboot when something gets ‘screwed up. But I often get the following message coming up on the ‘Event Viewer’:

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address xxxxx. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

I took a look at the M/S web page http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc774831.aspx%5B/url%5D and then at my settings which show up as set to ‘automatic’ as best as I can identify. Is his ‘normal’ when using wireless router with MAC or should I do something about it?
Ron

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Sounds to me like you may have a problem with your wireless router.

Does this just happen with one PC, or does it affect other PCs connected to that router too?

StuartR

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Hei Stuart,
I only use one pc (at home) plus an internet radio … both are connected via a Gigabyte Router using the WEP security. Both function quite OK but I was ‘learning’ a bit about pc maintenance and found this Event Report which showed the ‘unable’ comment listed on many occasions. Whatever the report says, for some unknown reason (unknown to me that is!) the pc/router continue to work satisfactorily for which I am grateful … not being a pc wizard!
When I set up the router I tried to be careful to not change ‘standard settings … I just added the WEP stuff etc which took me an age to work out. Just reading about all the setting possibilities for this router sets my heart a-pounding!
If you have some other suggestions of what I can or should check then I would be very grateful.
Ron

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Most routers are set up to have an environment with leased IP addresses (i.e. non-static). That means the IP address assigned to each device is only good for a limited period of time. When that time expires the device tries to renew its lease. If you examine the router documentation or actual configuration you should be able to find out how long the lease period is.

1.) Does the event get logged each time the IP address is renwed? If it only happens once in a while there is probably some temporaray communications issue with the router or a router malfunction.
2.) Do you have the more current firmware for the router?

Joe

--Joe

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Hei Joe,
Router setup says: WAN Type Dynamic IP Address and under LAN configuration it says DHCP Option with lease time of 24 Hours. The Gigabyte Router GN-BR01G says the Firmware is 1.38E, I have never tried to update this. Looking hard at the ‘Event information’ in the pc it looks as if the event I mentioned gets logged only when I first start up the pc (usually from ‘Sleep’). Perhaps its something to do with this method of operation rather than fully ‘shutting down’ my laptop after each use?

The full reported event message says as below … where it says that ‘the operation was cancelled by the user’ I don’t cancel anything as far as I know.
Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address xxxx. The following error occurred:
The operation was canceled by the user.. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.
Ron

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If it only happens when you wake the PC I’d not worry about it. It is most likely just a timing issue that is not worth trying to debug.

Joe

--Joe

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Ron,

This isn’t something you need to worry about particularly.

When you boot your PC it asks the DHCP server on the router for an IP Address. This is granted for a limited time (the lease time). When 50% of this time has expired the PC starts to ask for a renewal, and it keeps asking until 87.5% of the time has gone. After 87.5% of the time it then starts looking for another DHCP server. See this article for an explanation with diagrams.

• Do you turn the router or the PC off at night or weekends?
• How often do you reboot the PC?
• Go to a command prompt on your PC and type IPCONFIG /ALL. You will see two dates and times, marked “Lease Obtained” and “Lease Expires” what are these?
  [/list]StuartR

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Stuart and Joe,
Thanks for your continued support, much appreciated.
Generally I always use the pc from ‘sleep’ but will reboot probably a couple of times a week when maybe software stuff gets updated etc.
From ipconfig /all I read the following lease times: 08 Oct 13.54 to 10 Oct 14.40 so its obviously ‘current’.
Maybe I should just ‘not look’ at these reports and adopt the view of ‘if it ain’t broke then don’t mend it’. Its interesting though to learn a bit and keep the ageing grey matter working!
Ron

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Event logs are a good thing to review. There is a lot to be gleaned from them. Sometimes the information is rather cryptic and takes a bit of investigation. You can get early warning of impending problems.

Joe

--Joe

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