Topic: No TCP/IP address from DHCP

[mheymann]

I have SME server 6.X running in server/gateway mode.  The server has been running fine for a couple of years now but within the last 10 days a couple of issued have poped up (I will only describe 1 issue here the other will be a seperate post).  A few people when logging onto the network they did not get an IP address from the DHCP server.  Even after rebooting the client it still did not get an address.  It had an address, but the address was out of the DHCP range and there was no gateway address.  I was able to fix each system by going to a command prompt and using the command "ipconfig" to release and renew the address.  Rebooting the system had no effect on the system either to fix the error or recreate the error post fixing with "ipconfig".

While this solution worked it has happened to several systems and may happen again or cause other system to have problems so I am interested in figuring out what could be causing to problems in the first place.

The solution to this problem could also fix another problem I have where users have been having a problem losing the connection to another Linux server on the same network for short periods of time when trying to save files

I will be very thankfull for any help

[irian]

Must be hardware:
- NIC
- Cabling
- Switch
- Patchpanel

Is there by any chance another DHCP server on the network?

Irian

[mheymann]

I was reading in another post

"Or someone may have downloaded an application that among it's many services offers DHCP along with proxy or tunneling or whatever. Check also for another full server - someone putting in a test install of Windows-MegaII and accidentally starting it's DHCP server. "

I think that this may have happened on a new system that someone got recently.  i.e. he got the system and installed some software that is giving the rest of the network problems.  

Is there a way to remotely check the network for another DHCP server

I have a version of Knoppix called the STD (security tools distribution) and it has a copy of Etheral as well as many other progerams on it.  Would this be a good tool to track down the problem and if so what would i look for