We've got a device at work which connects to the server and interwebs using dchp to presumably assign an IP address or at least that's what I think it does. Anyway the problem is it keeps disconnecting and I have to turn dchp off and back on again for it to find a new up address and get back to doing it's one job. Any idea why? Or am I better off turning off DCHP and just assigning a random unused IP instead? And if that's the case is that as simple as going into the device and typing in a random unused IP on the server? And just so you know my knowledge of dchp is about as good as my knowledge of football. I only know what I've badly googled.
It’s certainly better than mine - I think I’d be more likely to answer this if it was written in mandarin !
DHCP shouldn't be flaky. Static ip is fine if you only have a couple of clients I guess. Have you got all clients and switches set to DHCP. You could be getting a conflict?
You normally have a dhcp server on your network - at home it would be your broadband router. When a system connects to the network and has dhcp enabled instead of a static IP address, the dhcp server gives the system it's IP address. All you need to do is to disable dhcp on your system and set a static IP address - use the IP last assigned by dhcp since you know that isn't in use. Edit I have sometimes deliberately used static IPs to make things easier. For example I had a ZGemma satellite receiver which hosted a web page for config etc. It was easier to connect to it via the static IP since it didn't have a URL.
You should be able to just set it to manual and just type in an unused address. Just note that depending on device when you set it to manual you will probably also have to automatically configure the DNS. If it's a work system the DNS might have to be a custom server to access work resources, but setting it to 1.1.1.1 and alternate to 1.0.0.1 will allow you to access the internet. If you can't access anything work specific you'll have to get the DNS server off IT or just go back to DHCP.
Give the device a static IP address it sounds like its losing connection when its DHCP IP lease expires and isn't being renewed
As everyone above says just give the device a static address (outside the DHCP range of addresses and the problem will go away if it’s problem is it’s forgetting the address. If it’s just the one device that should solve it. If it’s happening to multiple devices then it’s a problem with the DHCP server and that is harder to fix
Don't do this if you can help it. If you set it to manual to an IP within the DHCP range (which that obviously is, because it's been assigned it), if it disconnects something else can take that IP and then it won't be able to connect because it won't find another IP.
Good point, I never thought of that, I suppose it depends on how many nodes you've got in the network, I only had about 4 so never had a problem.
Ok I think I get what everyone seems to be saying (honest) It is just this one device that seems to get upset with the world and doesn't work, everything else seems to connect to things like they should and plays nicely. So I can just untick the DCHP ticky box and type in an IP that's outside the dchp range? Next question, how do I know what's outside the DCHP range? As for the suggestion of asking our IT people, well the problem there is there's two people in the company who take care of that and they both seem to spend their lives guessing what problems are or just ignoring problems. Good example is that I've been telling them this device has been losing its connection and losing its IP address for 2 weeks now and they told me it wasnt. Only today did they look at it and say oh yeah you're right, and then Just walked off.
Do you have admin rights on the router that has the DHCP server. You can then look at the IP address range. If not look at a few ip addresses they should all have the same first 3 numbers eg 192.168.1 and then add 100 to the last ones. So if you have 192.168.1.20 on your pc. Start the statics at 192.168.1.101
Goat's IT Problem Solver in 3 Easy Steps: 1. Turn it off and on again. 2. Curse loudly, then repeat step 1. 3. Hit it with a heavy object.
