DHCP Server not working with no errors!

Hi,

I have a single Windows 2003 server which is configured as a DC and provides
DHCP services on the local LAN. I've found that, recently, none of the PC's
on the LAN are able to renew / obtain an IP Address form the DHCP server.


I've checked the server and it is authorised in AD and the bindings are
correct. I've removed the DHCP service and reinstalled it. When I did this
I copied everything from %systemroot%\system32\dhcp to another
location and then deleted it.


I've checked the event logs and the DHCP.log files and can't find any error
messages. I've also checked the network cabling and replaced the network
switch.


The server does not have any firewall configured/installed and I tried
disabling the firewall on a couple of PC's in case there was an issue there.
As a last ditch attempt, I have reapplied SP1 but it's still not working.


As a temporary solution, I've configured the router as a DHCP server which
is working but the clients can only talk to the server via its IP address,
even though the dhcp scope has the servers IP address for DNS and the
clients have this in their configuration.


Does anyone have any ideas? I'm completely stuck!

¿May be the router is blocking DHCP traffic? ¿Did you try to force an
ipconfig /renew from a client and see with a sniffer if the request is
reaching the server? You can put an sniffer in the client and another in the
server and see the traffic they exchange. May be this tell you something that
helps you.

Tomás Sasovsky



"Lee Killner" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a single Windows 2003 server which is configured as a DC and provides
> DHCP services on the local LAN. I've found that, recently, none of the PC's
> on the LAN are able to renew / obtain an IP Address form the DHCP server.
>
>
> I've checked the server and it is authorised in AD and the bindings are
> correct. I've removed the DHCP service and reinstalled it. When I did this
> I copied everything from %systemroot%\system32\dhcp to another
> location and then deleted it.
>
>
> I've checked the event logs and the DHCP.log files and can't find any error
> messages. I've also checked the network cabling and replaced the network
> switch.
>
>
> The server does not have any firewall configured/installed and I tried
> disabling the firewall on a couple of PC's in case there was an issue there.
> As a last ditch attempt, I have reapplied SP1 but it's still not working.
>
>
> As a temporary solution, I've configured the router as a DHCP server which
> is working but the clients can only talk to the server via its IP address,
> even though the dhcp scope has the servers IP address for DNS and the
> clients have this in their configuration.
>
>
> Does anyone have any ideas? I'm completely stuck!
>
>
>

What kind of router? Are we talking Cisco gear or Netgear/Linksys/DLink?

I've personally witnessed my Netgear wireless router intermittantly block
BOOTP traffic from my wireless clients to the DHCP server on the wired
network. The solution was to replace the wireless router and ensure it had
the most up to date firmware on it. Haven't seen the problem since.

To get to the bottom of this, you really need to be running a network
sniffer on your DHCP server to determine if the BOOTP traffic is even making
to the DHCP server. I suspect not because if it was, you'd be seeing the
clients attempting to request DHCP addresses in the DHCP server logs. You'd
see ACKs or NACKs.

I suspect it's your router.

Jas

"Lee Killner" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a single Windows 2003 server which is configured as a DC and provides
> DHCP services on the local LAN. I've found that, recently, none of the PC's
> on the LAN are able to renew / obtain an IP Address form the DHCP server.
>
>
> I've checked the server and it is authorised in AD and the bindings are
> correct. I've removed the DHCP service and reinstalled it. When I did this
> I copied everything from %systemroot%\system32\dhcp to another
> location and then deleted it.
>
>
> I've checked the event logs and the DHCP.log files and can't find any error
> messages. I've also checked the network cabling and replaced the network
> switch.
>
>
> The server does not have any firewall configured/installed and I tried
> disabling the firewall on a couple of PC's in case there was an issue there.
> As a last ditch attempt, I have reapplied SP1 but it's still not working.
>
>
> As a temporary solution, I've configured the router as a DHCP server which
> is working but the clients can only talk to the server via its IP address,
> even though the dhcp scope has the servers IP address for DNS and the
> clients have this in their configuration.
>
>
> Does anyone have any ideas? I'm completely stuck!
>
>
>