Topic: DHCP strange condition

[Agent86]

Hi all,
I have encountered this strange condition
I am running SME 7-3 and enabled the SME DHCP server for local net.
All was working perfectly for all computers etc.
Having said this, I have one of the local machines is a quadriple boot machine or more.

Now here is what happened.
I booted the machine into WinXP, then noticed my virus scanner which is the freebie version of Avance or something like that, well anyhow it said I need to reregister as it has expired(it's only good for like 14 months at a time for home users free version)
So anyhow I did not feel like fooling with it at the time and rebooted the computer to work on something else, and booted back to my favorite desktop Mepis Linux

And now no internet, so I figured something was wrong and shutdown and rebooted again, no internet.
I rebooted again and selected a different OS - PClinuxOS and no internet
I then booted to all the other linux OS's one after the other to try and determine what was wrong and why
PclinuxOX,Mepis,Mandriva,Ubunto and no internet
I figured something must be wrong with the NIC card or something else
I went to the other computer to see if they were still getting DHCP IP's and access to the web, and yes all working fine

I suspected my NIC card, but decided to boot to WinXP just to see if it could access the net, AND yes it was fine, but still virus program registration I had to work out, so imediately rebooted thinking perhaps windows just had to let go of the NIC card or something

Anyhow no internet, I then check using Mepis Control panel to start and stop the etho1 card in the computer to see if it would pick up an IP and no could not find it, so I suspected the NIC even thought WinXP was still working fine.

I never could figure out what was wrong, but I plugged into an old router I have and enabled the DHCP server in the old router, and all was fine picked out an IP

I plugged back into the SME gateway/server and no IP
I then re-installed the SME and all is fine
I'm not sure what this means, or if it's possible to get a virus or something to cause SME not to give this MAC address an IP for linux only or something?

But anyhow it was very strange and I still do not know what would cause SME to stop giving an IP to this computer only when running linux brands only. And did not effect  Windows

This is very very strange to me,

Anyhow sorry for the long winded post but I was very curious to get suggestions on this subject.

[Agent86]

I don't know why

But everytime I boot to windows then boot back to any linux OS then I cannot access the internet, and the system will not find a internal IP address.

All the other machines on the network are still running and find IP's so I know the DHCP server in SME box is working, And also I can boot back to WinXP and I can get on the net.

What is XP doing to SME DHCP or ?????

Summized:

-reinstall SME all working perfectly for all machines.
-Boot to winxp on my local main machine >all working well
-boot back to any other linux OS >cannot obtain a local IP
-boot back to XP >windoze working fine >linux nothing
-re-install SME >all linux working perfect again until booting to windoze
-then it's no ip's again.

Whats this all about ??????? very annoying

Even if I boot to a live linux CD I cannot obtain a local IP, thus no internet
But windoze still operational

Yes indeed very annoying

 

[CharlieBrady]

Whats this all about ???????

What do your log files say?

[Agent86]

Thanks for the reply

2 topics:

1st topic:

I went to the console on the SME box trying to figure this out
I logged in and selected (configure server) from the menu
During this process I noticed that the IP range was wrong it was saying that first and last IP address was the same, which I know is incorrect.
Which also happens to be  the ip address I gave the internal eth card during initial install.
I've changed the range not to include the ip address which I gave the SME server eth internal card, and it appears linux is working again

I will reboot to windoze and few times to see if this condition duplicates iteself

2nd topic:

I'm not sure exacly which logs to start in, I've reviewed the dhcp/current logs and it looks similar to what I see on my linux screen during boot process, does not appear to be a problem but I don't really know what I'm looking for they are quite long to post

Please advise on what types of things I may look for.

Thanks for the help

I'll post my findings once I reboot a few times and play with the configure server section some more

[Agent86]

This did not appear to duplicate itself

But, if I were to install a fresh SME 7.0 pre3 and enable DHCP and set the IP  range for internal network, then it would all work find until I boot to a windoze machine.

Then I would have to go into the console and fix the ip range and all would work again, however this symptom seems to only occur upon booting to a windoze machine, and only on a fresh install of SME 7 pre3, however once I configure the server using the console this symtom goes away perminently.

Very strange, but at least I've got it solved.

I must say I'm very satisfied with SME overall and all seems to work well, thus far.

Thanks you all in the forum for being so helpful

I'm concluding this subject as solved