DHCP and assigned IP's

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark
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M

Mark

I have set up my networking to first get an IP from a DHCP server, then as
an alternate assign a predetermined IP address. As many users use their
laptops at work and at home, this is why I have set it up that way.

Is there a way to shorten the period in which the windows looks for a DHCP
server and to get an IP from it? It takes about 30 seconds or more,
searching for a DHCP server, before it goes to the alternate. Perhaps I
could change a setting in my registry somehow?

Thanks for your input.
 
What is the purpose of the predetermined IP address?

Note: If the laptop is setup to use DHCP, then it will work both at home
and work, as long as both the work and home networks use DHCP. We have this
for over 500 laptops nationwide - all home purchased router's are delivered
setup DHCP - the home user has to change it to assigned hard IP's. Also, a
DHCP network can have hard assigned IP addresses, as both our work
(printer's, scanners, etc) and my home use a mixture.

Example: My laptop at work gets an IP of 10.200.1.122 say Monday AM at
work, I logoff, go home, attach to home network (either hard/wireless),
bootup and the laptop will try 10.200.1.122 (as long as the lease hasn't
expired), this will fail, as my home DHCP uses 192.168.1.xxx scenario, so
I'm assigned an IP address of 192.168.1.108, again get done logoff, and
Tuesday AM at work it'll try to get 192.168.1.108, but since work DHCP is
not allowing the 192 range, it will get an 10.200.1.xxx range.

As far as reducing the timeout for searching for the DHCP server, I'm sure a
registry setting contains this, but 30 seconds is not that long, and you may
be creating more hard aches for yourself as a network admin than it is
worth - what if your DHCP server is extremely slow today for some reason -
average is 45 seconds to connect (as Windows always tries to connect to the
last DHCP server it attached too first before searching for a new DHCP
server) - do you have all the "predetermined" IP's also setup on your
network with each laptop being different - otherwise the predetermined would
be set (again if the DHCP was slow) and it would be invalid for your network
or already taken by another's laptop?

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First, we use assigned IP addresses at work. No DHCP servers here. At home,
my ISP assigns me an IP address through a DHCP server, as this is how most
ISP operate.

So, going back to my original posting, my primary TCP/IP setting is DHCP and
my alternate IP setting is assigned. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose
laptop is setup this way.

I tried to time how long it takes for my laptop to login to my work server.
It takes about a minute. It's because the windows first looks for a DHCP
server, which does not exist at work, then goes to my alternate setting.

At home, on the other hand, it takes less than 2 seconds to get an IP
address through my ISP's DHCP server. You can understand why this can be
frustrating at work. That's why I'm looking for a way to shorten the time
that the windows tries to access a DHCP server, say 20 seconds or even
shorter, before it attemps to try the alternate TCP/IP setting.

Anyone have an idea?
 
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