Bad IP Assignment At Bootup

[gltech]

Hi guys, I'm a newbie here. 10+ year SW developer. I just started my own business and have about 7 computers. I have a DSL modem that connects to a Siemens router, then to a Netgear switch. All the computers are connected to the Netgear swtch. Everything works fantastic, with one exception. When I boot up any one of the computers, it gets assigned an IP of 192.168.0.x and will not connect to the internet. I have to do ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew to get an IP with 254 instead of zero in the third position (192.168.254.x), and then everything's fine. One machine has 2000 Server, the rest are XP Pro. Any advice on how to resolve this? Thanks in advance!!!

gltech

[LLXX]

DHCP assigning the wrong subnet mask?

[jcarle]

Also, make sure the windows server machine is not trying to act as a DHCP server.

[nitroshift]

In your router DHCP configuration page specify the IP range that it should give out to the pc's. And as jcarle said, make sure your 2000 server machine does not act as a DHCP server.

[epic]

You may also want to configure your machines using the 'Alternate Configuration' method. Alternate Configuration (when implemented) replaces the 'default' Windows configuration IP 192.168.x.x; IF no DHCP server is found.

[cluberti]

It would be interesting to get a network trace from one of the machines after it's booted (leave the network cable out until you've booted and started the network trace on the NIC) to watch the DORA - see which DHCP server was responding to the initial discover, and whether or not that was the correct DHCP server (probably not!) .