Windows XP and DHCP

Not sure if this will help, but here goes:

Have you tried setting the computer to obtain an IP via DHCP, then shutdown the computer completely? Do not unplug the network cable or switch the network cable to another computer (I have some co-workers that would try to quickly switch a network cable from one laptop to another and complain).

With all that ready, power up the computer. The computer should obtain an IP address somewhere in the boot sequence, before the user can login.

Maybe you are already doing this, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Good luck.

On your original systems (IT) does it do the same thing if set for DHCP? It may be bad imagess on this new set.

Also, it might have some security settings for the connection, look in local policies.

Another idea would be that the LAN card needs to be reinstalled with a driver update.

My last thought, try setting the card from auto-negotiate with 100MB or 10MB ful duplex or half duplex.

lets try something else then shall we?
Anyway, do you have DNS setup? XP uses DNS quite a bit. If not, try modifying the HOSTS file, and adding the DHCP server address.

If that does not work, is File and print sharing enabled? Maybe this would help?

Let's see if an extra 1000 points brings any new ideas...

Q: Is your DHCP server in the same subnet?

Q: Are your IP setting on these new boxes MS default settings?

Q: Is the problem the same on all of your new boxes?

Q: I assume your are only running TCP/IP for a protcol?

Q: Are you useing any WINS, LMHOST's, or default gateway settings?

Q: You mentioned Win2K DC, are you running AD or NT domain?

If you can answer these q's I think we can nail this one down for you. I will reply to your reply.

PS Please rate the reply so I get a notice via email!

Here's a long shot. I've had network issues with a brand new XP that I had network connection problems. It turns out that the new XPs comes with a built in firewall that is enabled by default. I could not join the network domain because the server could not "see" the XP. Is it possible that your XPs joined the domain and then you enabled the firewall thus blocking it from the server after the fact? We are running DHCP and most of the PC

This can be caused by the asyncronous loading of networking during the boot up process. This speeds up the login process in a stand-alone workstation by allowing the user to log in with cached logon credentials before the network is fully ready.

To disable this "feature" open the MMC and add the group policy snap-in. Under Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->System-->Logon, change "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" to ENABLED.

This can be fed to clients via a group policy from a Windows 2000 server by upgrading the standard policy template with the XP policy template. Since this is an XP only command, non-XP systems will ignore it in a domain distributed group policy.

This is really bugging me - still can't find a solution - adding another 1000 points.

Hi,
Just looked at your problem. I was wondering
what TCP/IP protocol you are using? If you are using RIP the 20 - 30 second timing would be normal. RIP has a very slow convergence time. If you know how to I would try using OSPF (Open Shortest Path First).The convergence time is much quicker. You can get info about this online. The only downside to this is that it's much more complicated to run and understand.

pjb789

Hi,
have you tried putting your DNS server as a preferred DNS server on your clients? Kind of lame, but can sometimes shake things up. Anything good in the event viewer on the new clients?
regards

Hi,
I've read your whole tread here and I have the EXACT same situation. If you come up with a solution, would you mind passing it along to me? I could really use it.

Thank you in advance!
Andy

Hello All,

I have the exact same problem with my home system. However it just started happening. Before everthing worked fine with my XP system getting and IP address. I thought maybe when I upgraded my Linksys router that cause the problem. However I rolled back to the old version and it still did not solve the problem. PLEASE if anyone has additional information I would love to hear from you.

I've returned all of my xp users login to normal (i.e., what the w2k were use to) by adding a GPO to "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon".

(on the side: a good book to read is Moskowitz's Group Policy, Profiles, and IntelliMirror. This helped my tremendously.)

Any chance that the problem machines are using both wireless and wired Ethernet? If so, disable the wireless connection.
In our office, the wireless connection takes precedent, but if the connection is not strong then it slows down the wired connection, too.

Your network switch might be preventing your computer from talking to the network until after it confirms your traffic won't cause bridging loops, etc. On Cisco switches, you need "portfast" enabled to allow the computer to start communicating right away.

I am having the same issue with 3 of my clients.......all af them are new workstations. I dont have any issue with the older machines. Some of the new ones are Dell and others are HP.
Total of approx 35 workstations

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Blair

what I have done in this case is logon with the local administrator account and password, and them copy the profile to the defauld user and it allowed me to logon a regular user. I then check ipconfig and all the settings are there.

Wayne, I was looking at your original problem. I to have experiecnced the same problem in some offices. Did you ever get this resolved ?

Thanks

I also have the same problem with a mix of Win2000 workstations,One XP workstation and LinkSys equipment. I upgraded all the NICS to LinkSys Gigabit, bought and installed a new Linksys Gigabit switch that comes out of the LinkSys WRT54GS Wireless G Boadband router. I have changed registry keys for Windows Explorer Remote Computer NameSpace http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=832161 and researched many otheer so called Microsoft solutions to slow (30 seconds or longer ) access when browsing network shares. I have not tried switching Linksys Routers. I did try accessing the network using a mix of several routers, and swittches but have found no fix yet. As a Disabled Vet who runs his own home based web development business, this issue is ruining me, mentally and financially. If anyone has some cures for this woe, please send in reinforcements soon.

You may want to see if synchronization is activated.

I was working on my network this morning and at one of the workstations and I kept getting reminded to synchronize files. I examined all the workstations, and they had synchronization activated as well. I shut it off as a test on one workstation and the networking problem cleared up.
I did the same on all computers in the network and the 20-60 second delay when accessing network shares or remote computers is removed.

Did you ever tried to sniff traffic on server what is happening at time of XP startup?

well you can always install netbeui on your XP machines and see if it connects faster also make sure the windows fire wall is off

Answer 13 from Tim seems to have fixed my problems. We had recently turned off PORTFAST on each ethernet ports on our Cisco switches to troubleshoot a network issue.

If the user had a cached account on the PC, then logging off an on was ok -- our script and drive mappings worked.

If the PC was restarted or powered up, then the logon failed to complete because of a 20-30 second logon display after hitting enter. Script failed to run. However, log off & on immediately after that and the script runs ok.

Are these HP computers? Did you update them to XP SP2? If so, I had a somewhat similar problem at 3 different locations. These PCs all failed to negotiate an IP address and would hang for a while with the status 'Attempting to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server' I tried most of the things mentioned by those responding to your problem without success. Then I tried System Restore and restored them back to a date before updating to SP2 and my problem dissapeared. There are over 200 PCs in one location, the majority are Dell with about 50 Micron PCs and 4 HP machines scattered in between. More than half are running XP SP2 but the 4 HPs were the only ones experiencing this connectivity problem. The same thing with the other locations but on a smaller scale. Hope this helps.
PS: I was unable to find anything relating to this on Microsoft's or HP's site but I mentioned the problem to an IT friend who said he just read a bulletin of some sort recently about XP2 and some HP computers and claims there's a patch out to fix it,

Below is a solution that worked for a similar problem with IBM T41 and T42 laptops running Windows XP.

Problem:
- The Windows session starts for the user before the network card has acquired an IP address

Solution 1 (Temporary Fix):
The temporary solution that worked beore I made all the changes above was to place a small 100 MB switch (eg. a 5 port switch) between the computer and the wall jack.

My guess is that these portable swithces send a continous signal that there is a network connection. XP senses there is a network presence at startup and starts TCPIP address request.

Solution 2 (Preferred):
Below are three changes required to fix the problem.
You need to logon to the computer that has the problem. Logon with an account that has local administrator rights to the computer.

1 - Set logon script to run "Synchronously"
- open the "Group Policy" editor by typing "gpedit.msc" in the Run command line window.
- in the "Group Policy" editor, navigate to:
Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > System > Scripts
- open the setting called "Run logon scripts synchronously"
- set the value to "Enabled"

2 - Create registry value under TCPIP parameter to disable "Media Sense"
- open the registry editor by typing "regedit" in the Run command line window
- in the "Registry Editor", navigate to:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
- Created new REG_DWORD value called "DisableDHCPMediaSense"
- Set "DisableDHCPMediaSense" value of "1" to make this parameter active.

3 - Updated the driver for the network card.
- make sure you have the most recent drivers on the network card and verify that the driver is designed for Windows XP not just Win2k.

After you make the changes above, you will need to restart the laptop twice for changes to have an effect.

DXR

We had a problem like this awhile back. Turns out that it was our Cisco router settings. Seems that the ciscos weren't allowing packets through until about 30 seconds after the first network request.

Our machines were booting before the network was ready to communicate. I dont remember exactly what the problem was. Some about "spanning-tree" and/or "portfast".

Check your router configs.

Thank you to the people who listed the portfast setting on the Cisco switches as the answer to this. It seems the original poster listed his question as answered, but didn't indicate what actually solved his problem. Very frustrating.

Anyway, we went in and set the portfast on the ports in question (I didn't do the whole switch, just the ports where these XP SP2 computers are connecting) and it seems to have solved the issue. I found information on how to accomplish this here:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/12.html

Again, thank you to those who brought up the portfast settings as the likely culprit.

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