DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a system whereby instead of
hand-entering network settings -- and having to change them by hand if
anything about the network changes -- one or two servers can supply
configuration details to all of the other machines on the network.  On most
Windows versions, this is selected on client systems by the "Obtain an
address automatically" choice in the network configuration dialog,
  The most important configuration item supplied via DHCP is an address to
use.  The DHCP server(*) has a finite "pool" of valid addresses which it can
allocate to clients.  In order to prevent this pool from "leaking" --
clients obtaining addresses and never returning them -- another piece of the
configuration is a time limit, the "lease duration".

  You should not have to do a full reboot for this.  If you go to a command
prompt or "Run", the command "ipconfig /release" (on 9x, this may have to be
"ipconfig /release_all") will tell the server you no longer need the address
you've been given, and then "ipconfig /renew" will obtain a fresh one.  So
those two commands, one after the other, should be sufficient.
  But perhaps not.  Once the lease duration has HALF expired, your machine
is supposed to start trying to contact the DHCP server it got the lease
from, and "renew the lease" automatically.  Apparently, this isn't working
in your case.

* - In the simple one-machine case, the DHCP server is usually part of your
ISP's network.  If you are using Internet Connection Sharing, the machine
that is sharing its connection usually provides DHCP service to the other
local machines (even while its Internet side is a client of an ISP's
server).  If you use a router, it is probably capable of being the DHCP
server for your LAN, and often comes with this service enabled by default.
  If you get the output from running the command "ipconfig /all", it will
show the address of the DHCP server which supplied the current address
settings, if any.

David Gillett


On 27 Jul 2004 at 11:52, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Recently I've been losing my internet connection on a regular basis.
> Rebooting the system restores the connection and all goes along well, but the cycle
> repeats each day.  In running the internet connection troubleshooter (Windows
> XP) an interesting message appears.  Paraphrasing....it indicates my DHCP lease
> has expired, then is obtained after rebooting.  I wasn't aware I had a lease
> for DHCP, so this message is a bit cryptic and again, has only occurred in the
> last couple weeks.  Can someone shed some light on this and lead me in the
> direction of the fix?  Greatly appreciated.
>
> Paul Roeth
>
>                          PCBUILD's List Owners:
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