Problem with DHCP and 'Automatic Private Address'

[Geoff]

Hi. I'm using XP Pro, and I've been having trouble connecting a desktop
computer's ethernet card to a router. When I disconnect the cable from the
computer and plug it into a laptop (running XP Home), everything works
fine, so as far as I can tell, all of the hardware works properly.
Therefore, I believe that the problem lies within Windows. Here's what
happens with the desktop:

I plug the cable into the ethernet card, and click on "Local Area
Connection Status." Its status is "Connected," and packets have been sent
and received. Clicking on the "Support" tab shows me that the IP address
is 169.254.xx.x, when in fact it SHOULD be 192.168.x.xx. Also, the
"Address Type" is "Automatic Private Address," whereas it should say
"Assigned by DHCP." I've tried manually setting the IP, Subnet, Gateway,
etc. and that allows me to PING the router, but I still can't get through
to the internet or to any other computes on the network.

I've read that this thing with "Automatic Private Address" is a "symptom of
the problem, but not the problem." However, I've been unable to solve or
even identify the problem. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the
NIC, and I've tried a second NIC as well, neither of which fixed anything.
I've also tried resetting the router, to no avail.

What can I do to get this thing working? Thanks for any help, and please
let me know if I could include any further information about what's
happening.

--Geoff

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Bitstring 7>, from
the wonderful person Geoff > said
>Hi. I'm using XP Pro, and I've been having trouble connecting a desktop
>computer's ethernet card to a router. When I disconnect the cable from the
>computer and plug it into a laptop (running XP Home), everything works
>fine, so as far as I can tell, all of the hardware works properly.
>Therefore, I believe that the problem lies within Windows. Here's what
>happens with the desktop:
>
>I plug the cable into the ethernet card, and click on "Local Area
>Connection Status." Its status is "Connected," and packets have been sent
>and received. Clicking on the "Support" tab shows me that the IP address
>is 169.254.xx.x, when in fact it SHOULD be 192.168.x.xx. Also, the
>"Address Type" is "Automatic Private Address," whereas it should say
>"Assigned by DHCP." I've tried manually setting the IP, Subnet, Gateway,
>etc. and that allows me to PING the router, but I still can't get through
>to the internet or to any other computes on the network.
>
>I've read that this thing with "Automatic Private Address" is a "symptom of
>the problem, but not the problem." However, I've been unable to solve or
>even identify the problem. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the
>NIC, and I've tried a second NIC as well, neither of which fixed anything.
>I've also tried resetting the router, to no avail.
>
>What can I do to get this thing working? Thanks for any help, and please
>let me know if I could include any further information about what's
>happening.

You have turned the XP built-in, default-to-on firewall off, yes? No
other firewalls installed on this PC??

If you do an ipconfig /all in a CMD window, what does it tell you? In
particular, does 'DHCP server' IP address bear any resemblance to the IP
address of your Router?

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Outgoing Msgs are Turing Tested,and indistinguishable from human typing.

[Geoff]

GSV Three Minds in a Can ]> wrote:
> You have turned the XP built-in, default-to-on firewall off, yes? No
> other firewalls installed on this PC??

First of all, thanks for responding. That's correct, no firewalls on or
installed anywhere. (I normally have the router's firewall up, but I
tried disabling it for this, just to be sure.)

> If you do an ipconfig /all in a CMD window, what does it tell you? In
> particular, does 'DHCP server' IP address bear any resemblance to the
> IP address of your Router?
Well, there is no line anywhere labelled 'DHCP server.' There's a line
that says that DHCP is enabled, but nothing more. Here's the entire
output, and I apologize if the formatting gets messed up somehow:

Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . : bixby
Primary Dns Suffix. . :
Node Type . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . : No
WInS Proxy Enabled. . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description. . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce MCP <etc>
Physical Address . . . . . . . . : <Appropriate MAC add.>
Dhcp Enabled . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfigured Enabled . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfigured IP Address. . . . : 169.254.xx.x
Subnet Mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . :


When I enter ipconfig /renew, I get the following message:
An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : An
operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.

Hope that this helps you to help me... :-)

--Geoff

[Yves Leclerc]

Depend on the hub/switch speed, the cable may not work with auto-detect.
The cable may be working correctly of the PC so check to make sure the
laptop's ethernet port is running at the same Ethernet speed (10 or 100) and
not auto-detect.

Yves

"Geoff" > wrote in message
. 204.17...
> GSV Three Minds in a Can ]> wrote:
> > You have turned the XP built-in, default-to-on firewall off, yes? No
> > other firewalls installed on this PC??
>
> First of all, thanks for responding. That's correct, no firewalls on or
> installed anywhere. (I normally have the router's firewall up, but I
> tried disabling it for this, just to be sure.)
>
> > If you do an ipconfig /all in a CMD window, what does it tell you? In
> > particular, does 'DHCP server' IP address bear any resemblance to the
> > IP address of your Router?
> Well, there is no line anywhere labelled 'DHCP server.' There's a line
> that says that DHCP is enabled, but nothing more. Here's the entire
> output, and I apologize if the formatting gets messed up somehow:
>
> Windows IP Configuration
> Host Name . . . . . . : bixby
> Primary Dns Suffix. . :
> Node Type . . . . . . : Unknown
> IP Routing Enabled. . : No
> WInS Proxy Enabled. . : No
>
> Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
> Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
> Description. . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce MCP <etc>
> Physical Address . . . . . . . . : <Appropriate MAC add.>
> Dhcp Enabled . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
> Autoconfigured Enabled . . . . . : Yes
> Autoconfigured IP Address. . . . : 169.254.xx.x
> Subnet Mask. . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
> Default Gateway. . . . . . . . . :
>
>
> When I enter ipconfig /renew, I get the following message:
> An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : An
> operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.
>
> Hope that this helps you to help me... :-)
>
> --Geoff

[Geoff]

"Yves Leclerc" > wrote in
:

> Depend on the hub/switch speed, the cable may not work with
> auto-detect. The cable may be working correctly of the PC so check to
> make sure the laptop's ethernet port is running at the same Ethernet
> speed (10 or 100) and not auto-detect.
The 'Local Area Connection Status' dialog box lists the connection speed as
100.0 Mbps for both the desktop and the laptop. I don't know how to
control this setting manually, but since the laptop works at 100 Mbps and
the desktop doesn't, I'd guess that this isn't the problem. If I'm
overlooking something, though, please tell me that I'm wrong! Thanks.

--Geoff