XP DNS problem

[kleinbottle5]

We have a local network of 70 mixed Windows PC workstations. Some are
NT4, some Win2000 and 6 are XP(Pro). The DHCP is serviced by an NT4
server.

The 6 XP workstations over the last few months sporadically (every 2
weeks on avg.) seem to lose connection with the outside world. The DNS
setting in the XP client is being set to 192.168.0.1.
But our DNS is really 198.x.y.z . Our internal network is a C class
(193.1.1.xxx). The problem is fixed by doing a "IPCONFIG /RENEW" or
restarting the client.

This is setup correctly in our DHCP server, has been working for years
and continues to work for all the other Windows clients. We have the
DHCP turned off on the router although it also has the
198.x.y.z setup in it.

We check frequently (dhcpfind.exe) to see if there is another DHCP
service popping up in our network - but can't seem to find any.

We've noticed also that the occurrences don't seem to be related to the
lease renewals on the IP addresses.

Only the XP machines seem to suffer this problem.

Anyone hear of an XP bug relating to this?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Wayne

 

[Ron Lowe]

We have a local network of 70 mixed Windows PC workstations. Some are
NT4, some Win2000 and 6 are XP(Pro). The DHCP is serviced by an NT4
server.

The 6 XP workstations over the last few months sporadically (every 2
weeks on avg.) seem to lose connection with the outside world. The DNS
setting in the XP client is being set to 192.168.0.1.
But our DNS is really 198.x.y.z . Our internal network is a C class
(193.1.1.xxx). The problem is fixed by doing a "IPCONFIG /RENEW" or
restarting the client.

This is setup correctly in our DHCP server, has been working for years
and continues to work for all the other Windows clients. We have the
DHCP turned off on the router although it also has the
198.x.y.z setup in it.

We check frequently (dhcpfind.exe) to see if there is another DHCP
service popping up in our network - but can't seem to find any.

We've noticed also that the occurrences don't seem to be related to the
lease renewals on the IP addresses.

Only the XP machines seem to suffer this problem.

Anyone hear of an XP bug relating to this?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Wayne

I've never heard of dhcpfind.exe, but if there is a rogue DHCP server on the
network and some machines are picking up bad configs from it, the way to
identify it is to go to a machine which HAS picked up a bad config, and then
look at the connection properties. ( or do an ipconfig /all at the command
prompt. )

This should reveal the IP address of the DHCP server that provided the bad
configuration which is in use. Then track down that machine and
investigate it.

It could be a PC which is occasionally connected to the LAN which has some
Internet Connection Sharing software running, for example.

 

[kleinbottle5]

I've never heard of dhcpfind.exe, but if there is a rogue DHCP server on the
network and some machines are picking up bad configs from it, the way to
identify it is to go to a machine which HAS picked up a bad config, and then
look at the connection properties. ( or do an ipconfig /all at the command
prompt. )

This should reveal the IP address of the DHCP server that provided the bad
configuration which is in use. Then track down that machine and
investigate it.

It could be a PC which is occasionally connected to the LAN which has some
Internet Connection Sharing software running, for example.

Actually we did do the ipconfig /all and always found that it was
pointing at the right DHCP address.

Thanks a lot for the ideas, though.

Wayne