XP Wireless DHCP Fails

[Martin]

Hi,

I have a strange problem with an XP Pro SP1 client.

I have a Wireless ADSL Router / Firewall (Draytek Vigor
2600we), which has a 4 port ethernet switch as well as a
wireless access point. I have a desktop machine
connected to one of the router switch ports using
10baseT, this is set to pick up a DHCP address from the
router - which it does correctly.

I also have a laptop running XP Pro SP1, which has a
Draytek Wireless PCcard, as well as a built in ethernet
card (network cable not connected), and Vmware virtual
adapters (disabled). I can detect the wireless access
point/router OK from the laptop and connect (as far as
the wireless lan is concerned), but I cannot obtain a
DHCP address from the router.

The router DHCP table actually indicates that the laptop
has been assigned an IP address, but when I run an
ipconfig / all on the laptop, the Wireless adaptor has no
address, and eventually gets an APIPA address.

It seems that something is going wrong with the DHCP
offer. I have come across MS article: 320229 which
appears to highlight this exact problem - but I already
have XP SP1 applied, and my dhcpsvc.dll is 5.1.2600.1106
(xpsp1.020828-1920) 29/08/2002.

All wireless is 802.11b.

If I manually assign an IP address to the wireless
adaptor on the laptop, then I can ping the router -
showing that it is just the DHCP process that is a
problem.

Any suggestions - could it be an XP bug?

Regards,

Martin.

 

[Martin]

Sorry, posted in W2K instead of XP...

 

[Seaver]

Dear Martin,

Thank you for your posting.

According to your post, laptop installed with XP SP1 cannot get automatic
IP address.

If I have misunderstood your concern please don't hesitate to let me know.

1. Please firstly ensure that the ports of build-in firewall of the
hardware router has been opened. You may refer to its hardware vendor for
detailed instructions.

In the meantime, to purify the troubleshooting environment, please
temporarily remove Vmware program from Add/Remove Programs, and then reboot
your computer to test the situation.

2. If you are using ICS for the desktop and laptop, the IP address
allocation failure can occur. Please refer to the following article:

263217 Windows DHCP Server Gives Incorrect Settings for the Default Gateway
or
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=263217

Hope them help!

Sincerely,

Seaver Ren

Product Support Services
Microsoft Corporation

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

 

[Martin]

Thank you for the reply Seaver,

Yes, my first thoughts were the firewall, so I have
opened everything to everyone (physically disconnected
from the internet..!!!).

I did have vmware disabled, but then tried uninstalling -
and this made no difference.

I do not have ICS installed / configured on the laptop.

Don't forget I can connect OK, and ping in both
directions if I manually assign an IP to the laptop
wireless lan adapter.

I will try disabling WEP, SSID hiding and mac address
control on the router/ firewall this evening and see if
that helps.

The problem does seem very similar to the Q article
detailed above - I'm not convinced it is not related....

Any further suggestions gratefully received,

Regards,

Martin.

 

[Seaver]

Dear Martin,

I really understand your concern of the issue, however, the test of
firewall program's removal can help us narrow down the problem scope.
Please rest assured that you may install them back right after the tests
finished.

The symptom mentioned in 320229 basically matches your computer, however,
since XP SP1 has been installed, we can safely skip it.

Sincerely,

Seaver

 

[sbear]

Solution

I had the exact same problem on Win2000 PC -- No DHCP assigned IP address received even though one assigned. With manual assignment I could ping other computers but that was it. Another forum suggest ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew. This didn't work, but ipconfig /renew gave me an error message: "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket"

I found a solution tied to that error message:Microsoft Article ID:817571

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817571

I had previously reinstalled TCP/IP without success. Deleting registry entries Winsock and Winsock2 first and then reinstalling did the trick.

Good Luck.