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Limited Or No Connectivity - Unable To Contact DHCP

Discussion in 'Networking (Hardware & Software)' started by Alanistic, 2007/08/16.

  1. 2007/08/16
    Alanistic

    Alanistic Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hello, I was hoping someone might be able to give me a hand with this one. I've had a search through the forum and I've found a few threads on this problem but nothing which has helped me so far.

    Basically, I have a home network with 4 access points:
    1) A PC which is connected to the router via USB cable.
    2) A laptop with a BT network adapter. (laptop #1)
    3) A laptop with a built in adapter. (laptop #2)
    4) An Xbox 360.

    The PC and Laptop#1 ar fine. The Xbox is fine. The problem lies with Laptop#2 (which belongs to my brother) but it was fine the other day.

    When he tries to connect to the internet, he gets limited or no connectivity. I've checked all the settings and everything seems to be fine - he's setup to automatically acquire his IP address and DNS. I done a command prompt for ipconfig/all which shows no default gateway.

    ipconfig/release ran ok, and ipconfig/renew returned with the result "an error occured while renewing interface wireless network connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out." Here's a quick summary of everything I've checked:

    - Firewall is switched off.
    - Virus scanners deactivated.
    - Router switched off and then on.
    - Network password correct.
    - IP and DNS set to automatic.
    - ipconfig/release and ipconfig/renew - FAILS

    I'm a programming graduate but I've barely touched networking so aside from what I can read online I've got very little networking knowledge. Does anyone have any idea what has suddenly caused this problem?

    I was going to restore his system to the factory defaults - is that likely to resolve the issue?
     
    Alanistic,
    #1
  2. 2007/08/16
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Hi,

    Welcome to WindowsBBS.

    Can you ping:

    1: 127.0.0.1

    2: the IP address of the router

    Is the router setup as a DHCP server?
     
    Arie,
    #2


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  4. 2007/08/17
    Alanistic

    Alanistic Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hi,

    Thanks for the help and the welcome.

    I opened a command prompt and entered:

    ping 127.0.0.1.

    My response was:
    Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
    Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
    Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
    Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

    What is 127.0.0.1??

    I then tried:

    ping <ROUTER IP ADDRESS>

    My response was:

    Pinging <ROUTER IPADDRESS> with 32 bytes of data:
    Destination host unreachable
    Destination host unreachable
    Destination host unreachable
    Destination host unreachable

    But when I do the same thing from the connected laptop I get:

    Reply from <ROUTER IPADDRESS>: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=255
    Reply from <ROUTER IPADDRESS>: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=255
    Reply from <ROUTER IPADDRESS>: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=255
    Reply from <ROUTER IPADDRESS>: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=255

    I think my router is setup as DHCP as I havent had any problems with the other laptop or Xbox using the network - whats the easiest way to check that?
     
    Last edited: 2007/08/17
    Alanistic,
    #3
  5. 2007/08/17
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    127.0.0.1 is called the loopback address. Successfully pinging the loopback address verifies that TCP/IP is installed & configured correctly on the local machine.

    This means you may have an issue with the network adapter, the cabling, or other connectivity hardware.

    Could you also post your IP configuration here?

    From a command prompt (Start > Run and type CMD, press OK) type ipconfig /all > ip.txt. Browse to the directory where the ip.txt file was created, and copy its contends in a post here.
     
    Arie,
    #4
  6. 2007/08/17
    Alanistic

    Alanistic Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks so much for the assistance. Here's the config from both laptops. The only difference shown is that the problem one does not list the default gateway. When I run the repair option on the adapter, it seems to stick at the Renewing IP bit then eventually pops up limited or no connectivity. If I access the router via a browser and go to wireless clients it shows both machines connected.

    From The Problem Laptop
    Windows IP Configuration
    Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : MartinsLaptop
    Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
    Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
    IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

    Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:
    Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : LAN-Express AS IEEE 802.11g PCI-E Adapter
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-CF-CE-36-B0
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.240.18
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-A9-4D-41-1E


    From The Working Laptop:
    Windows IP Configuration
    Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : AlansLaptop
    Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
    Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
    IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : home

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-D0-87-96-91

    Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:
    Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BT Voyager 1055 Laptop Adapter
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-F5-A2-AE-78
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
    DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
    Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 17 August 2007 18:13:34
    Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 18 August 2007 18:13:34
     
    Alanistic,
    #5
  7. 2007/08/18
    fm1058

    fm1058 Inactive

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    The ip 169.255.0.0/16 is default obtained automatically when pc can not get ip from dhcp server.

    So i think your problem is connectivity between router and Laptop.
    Do you verify your wirework password is correct?
    You can do this as follows:
    1. Setting you Laptop static ip is 192.168.1.*
    netmask is 255.255.255.0
    gateway is 192.168.1.1
    dns is 192.168.1.1
    2. Ping router ip(192.168.1.1)
    ps:I am from china,my english is very poor,so may be something i can not express very clearly.
     
    fm1058,
    #6
  8. 2007/08/18
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Hi,

    As I posted above
    Trying to set the IP configuration manually as suggested by fm1058 was my next suggestion, it should confirm if you have a hardware problem.
     
    Arie,
    #7
  9. 2007/08/18
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    It's 169.254.0.0/16.
     
    Arie,
    #8
  10. 2007/08/18
    Alanistic

    Alanistic Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks so much for the help! The laptop is now fully connected to the network, but I still can't access any web pages. I get the Page Cannot Be Displayed and when I PING the router I get:

    Pinging <ROUTER IPADDRESS> with 32 bytes of data:
    Connection timeout
    Connection timeout
    Connection timeout
    Connection timeout

    Any ideas?

    Thanks so much for the help on this, I really do appreciate it!
     
    Alanistic,
    #9
  11. 2007/08/18
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    What does that mean???

    From your ping it seems nothing changed.
     
    Arie,
    #10
  12. 2007/08/18
    ReggieB

    ReggieB Inactive Alumni

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    This looks like faulty cable to me. Try another cable. Also try a different port on the router (as there is an outside chance it could be a faulty port). If a different cable doesn't fix the problem, I think the next step is to try a different network card.
     
    ReggieB,
    #11
  13. 2007/08/18
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    I was assuming we were talking about the wireless connection, as that's the one receiving the APIPA address.
     
    Arie,
    #12
  14. 2007/08/19
    Alanistic

    Alanistic Inactive Thread Starter

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    It is a wireless connection.

    When I try to connect to the network, it now comes up "Connected to network, Signal strength Excellent ". Before hand (when the IP was set automatically) it said "Limited or no connectivity ". So now I seem to have a connection, but all PINGs are timing out and I can't view any web pages. Anything else I can check?
     
    Alanistic,
    #13
  15. 2007/08/19
    ReggieB

    ReggieB Inactive Alumni

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    Ah.... Well.... what I meant was .....

    Just testing - honest :)
     
    ReggieB,
    #14
  16. 2007/08/19
    ReggieB

    ReggieB Inactive Alumni

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    What address did you statically assign to the PC - is it unique to the PC?

    Have you checked that SSID is correct and you are not connecting to your neighbour's network?

    Have you set up anything like a MAC address exclusion on the router?

    Have you tried using the BT adapter in the problem laptop to see if there is anything wrong specific to this PC. If you can get a connection with the BT adapter from the problem PC, it tells us this is a problem with the network card/connect in this laptop. If you can't get a connection with the BT adapter, we're probably looking at a OS problem.
     
    ReggieB,
    #15

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