communication disconnect from network

a client of mine with a Dimension 4700's with xp pro 512mb h.d. etc. thats been in place about a year all of a sudden is getting a message from Quickbooks Enterprises that she has lost her connection. Was getting a blue screen bad_pool_caller at 0c2 which usually points to a bad driver of some sort. Had client look at the event viewer and below is what she found so I had her check Microsofts web site for custom updates to see if a network update was available and it was so I had them do the update. client says about 2 hours after the update the problem happened again with Quickbooks. Having her look at the event viewer again but wanted to throw this past you. Also, had her run Dells diagnostic CD full check and all passed just fine.

"When I went to the event viewer- I saw at 1:18pm on Friday 6 warnings saying "Warning-Computer not able to renew its address from the DHCP server for the network card with network address 0013200F4967. Computer will continue to try to obtain an address on its won from the network address (DHCP) server--This message appeared at 1 minute intervals until 1:39 p.m when the error message came up telling Emily--Your computer has lost the lease to its IP address 192.168.1.40 on the network card with network address 0013200F4967. --at that time we lost the connection with Quickbooks and then started the diagnostic CD. Please advise. Thanks-- "

 

Do you know which device/server is giving out IP addresses on the network. That is, which one is acting as your DHCP server. On SOHO networks this tends to be the internet router. On larger networks it is usually a server. It appears that the DHCP server is unavailable.

When a DHCP server gives out an IP address, it does so via a lease. That is, it effectively says "you can use this IP address for so many days" NT4 DHCP lease used to be 3 days by default and I think 2000/2003 are the same. Routers often have a lease period of about a week. About half way through the lease period, the device will look to renew its IP address.

From your logs it looks like the PC has got to the end of the lease period and been unable to contact the DHCP server to renew the lease. With no IP address, the network it effectively lost. The network card may revert to one of Microsoft's automatic address, but as that will most likely be on a diffenent subnet to the main network, the effect is the same.

So. The most likely causes (in order of most likely first) are:

• DHCP service has been stopped on the server. Restart the service.
• The server or router providing the DHCP server has been shutdown. Start it up.
• The server/router providing the DHCP service has been moved to another part of the network, where it can no longer receive broadcast requests for BOOTP. Review your network design. If this is the only PC on this segment, you may need to use static IP address assignement for this PC.
• This problem is only a symptom of a more fundemental problem on the network. Check cables and infrastructure devices.

 

there are 5 other machines on this network and none of them are having problems. using a linksys wrt54g wireless router connected to a centurytel dsl modem. so dhcp coming through the linksys assigning automatically. no true server here basically peer to peer running through the router. going to a server as client is building a new office but that a little way down the line.

 

Check your LAN cable. It could be loose or broken. Suggest that if you can, swap the desktop position with other computer which is working ok to see if the problem disappears. Change your patch cable at least.

 

I think rsinfo is right to suggest cables as the next thing to check.

However, do note that as DHCP leases last for days, if the service goes down the computers using the service will not all lose network connection together. This PC could just be the first to have its lease run out. I think it would be worth checking that the DHCP service hasn't been switched off at the router.

It might also be worth doing a IPCONFIG /RENEW on the problem PC, just to force it to look for a DHCP server. Outside chance this will work. The PC should renew on a restart, but it is a quick thing to try and may work.