Intermittent "Cannot Renew IP" - XP Pro and Server 2003

[douglasstb]

Hi!

We have no IT manager to discuss this with, and the person who set up our system is long gone, so please bear with me on this

I have a Compaq 6820s Laptop running XP Pro SP3 that works as my only workstation, as I spend a lot of time out of town. In the office, we have a server running Server 2003, which has eight stationary workstations (desktops) also running XP Pro SP3, that are always connected to the network. Mine is only physically connected to the network maybe 50% of the time I'm using it.

Typically after I've worked out of town for a few days, I come back into the office, plug in my Cat5 cable, log on to the network, synchronize, and I'm good to go, and my laptop behaves just like any other workstation on the network. I've been doing this for over a year now.

Just as of last week however, when I plug in my cable and turn on, once and awhile the laptop will tell me I have limited or no connectivity to the network. Sometimes a connection repair will do the trick. Sometimes, however, it tells me that it can't renew my IP address, and I'll have to reboot (once I had to reboot twice) before I can get a connection to the network. Once my connection was dropped in the middle of the afternoon, even though I'd been connected all day.

Right now, I'm actually connected to the network just fine, but when this happens again in the future, is there anything I could check to get to the root of the problem, and keep this from happening again?

 

[douglasstb]

I forgot to mention, my mobile workstation is the only workstation exhibiting this problem; the stationary workstations continue to connect to the network when they're turned on every morning without problem.

 

[goombawaho]

I would reboot your DHCP server if it's a home router type of device or if DHCP runs off the 2003 server, you would need to look in the logs to see why your laptop is being denied an IP address.

You could also update your network card driver if one is available. You could replace the cable running from your PC to the network jack. Lots of places for this type of problem to be rooted.

Has the 2003 server been rebooted in a number of months??? A reboot every couple of months is not a bad idea to freshen things up.

Identify your DHCP server by going to START RUN CMD (ok)
type in ipconfig /all and get the ip address of the DHCP server. Then you'll know which device on the "server side" of things might need checking into or rebooting.

 

[alohaposgeek]

Check the lease time on your DHCP server and also check the number of addresses available. As far as your machine goes make sure that DHCP media sense is not disabled.