XP Pro Alternate IP not working...

[Guest]

Hi,

I am using my laptop on two networks. One with DHCP and the alternate with a
static IP assignment. I have set up the primary to use DHCP and entered the
static details for the alternate, however whenever I move to the alternate
network XP fails to switch to the alternate IP address specified. IP status
is "Invalid IP address" with IP given as 0.0.0.0 and subnet likewise. Even if
I try "Repair" it still fails stating that an automatic address could not be
obtained. Surely it is supposed to simply switch to the alternate given when
the primary DHCP allocation fails!?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

David Jones

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I am using my laptop on two networks. One with DHCP and the alternate with a
static IP assignment. I have set up the primary to use DHCP and entered the
static details for the alternate, however whenever I move to the alternate
network XP fails to switch to the alternate IP address specified. IP status
is "Invalid IP address" with IP given as 0.0.0.0 and subnet likewise. Even if
I try "Repair" it still fails stating that an automatic address could not be
obtained. Surely it is supposed to simply switch to the alternate given when
the primary DHCP allocation fails!?

David,

just want to confirm that you are correct. The alternate IP
address should automatically be used when no DHCP server can be
reached.

I'm not so sure though what you could do next. I would try to
repair the network connection and the Winsock according to
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxNetwork.htm.

Hans-Georg

 

[Chuck]

Hi,

I am using my laptop on two networks. One with DHCP and the alternate with a
static IP assignment. I have set up the primary to use DHCP and entered the
static details for the alternate, however whenever I move to the alternate
network XP fails to switch to the alternate IP address specified. IP status
is "Invalid IP address" with IP given as 0.0.0.0 and subnet likewise. Even if
I try "Repair" it still fails stating that an automatic address could not be
obtained. Surely it is supposed to simply switch to the alternate given when
the primary DHCP allocation fails!?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

David Jones

David,

See the Microsoft article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=254116

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Chuck]

Sorry Chuck... this is XP Pro I am referring to and the KB article you gave
refers to Win2K. Also, as stated in my original post, even trying the
"Repair" option fails to activate alternate static IP configuration.

Cheers,

David.

David,

This wouldn't be the first KB article labeled "Windows 2000" that didn't also
apply to Windows XP. Windows XP is labeled "Windows NT V5.1" by M$ in some
places (Windows 2000 is V5.0). M$ does not re label all of the relevant
articles with Windows XP.

The Repair option wouldn't be expected to resolve this issue. The point
expressed by M$ (and there's another article with more detail that I can't find)
is that this is expected behaviour.

If you do "ipconfig /renew" with a network connection active, but no DHCP server
available to issue an address, Windows XP will self assign an APIPA address. If
you do "ipconfig /renew" with no network connection active (supposedly even with
the network cable removed from the Ethernet card), it won't do APIPA, but assign
"0.0.0.0".

You'd expect Repair to fix some problems. It sounds to me like there's no
repairable problem here. My guess is that the way you're moving the laptop
between the two networks, combined with your network hardware and drivers,
causes your problem.

You might want to work with the vendor of the laptop, and the network card, and
see if this is a known issue to them.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.