Thanks for the tip. I was just to tired to type.
I haven't solved it but I've narrowed it down.
Its a 7 node lan, 6 XP Pro and 1 WinMe.
Everything was running fine until I started shutting down
machines for a move to a new lan about 100 feet away.
First some quick background.
The network prior to my arrival 2 months ago was running
all WinMe...7 machines. The owner has had me upgrade her
machines to XP Pro per a software vendors (dentist
office) policy of not continuing support on their
products latest version without XP. Within the last 30
days.
All machines were running dhcp from one machine sharing
out an ICS AOL connectiod. Prior to the upgrade to XP.All
machines were also running Netbeui to the best of my
knowledge. Prior to the OS upgrade.....two months ago.
All machines are configured for dhcp and all were getting
192.168.0.X addresses prior to the OS upgrade.
I started having connectivity problems right away. After
the upgrade to XP. Due to time constraints I resolved it
by just making sure all machines were running Netbeui. I
tried also at that time to assign static 192.168.x.x
addresses but it did not resolve the issue. So I moved to
netbeui for time reasons.
When I've shut down any of the machines and bring them
back up on the new LAN (or the old)starting today. The
problem surfaces.
The problem is......
None of the machines is able to acquire an IP address
when on the network with any other machine. However, as
soon as only one machine is on the network...it acquires
a 192.168.0.x address.
When ever more than one machine is on the network, all
machines in question start reporting about once per
second that their unplugged then plugged then unplugged
then plugged......referring to the cable connection. But
only when more than one machine is on the network. This
is observed via the system tray icon and network
properties page.
When an ipconfig is ran...the result is simply.
"Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected"
referring to one or more network connections in the
properties page.
on all/any machine.
I've switched cables, reseated cables, and of course
rebooted until I'm blue in the face.
I can ping 127.0.0.1 successfully on any machine when on
the network with others. I've tried assigning static Ip's
in the 192.168.x.x range.....but the result is the same
via ipconfig....
"Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected"
When any are plugged into a 5 port linksys switch or 12
port netflex switch (this is the switch of the
network).......the behavior is the same. All machines
are configured for DHCP.
I'm able to reproduce the issue at will. Via a closed
test LAN of just two laptops. Using the linksys 5-port
switch. One of the two laptops that I'm able to re-create
the problem on is running W2K Pro. All I have to do is
bring them both up on the network.
As soon as only one machine is on the network, and I mean
within seconds of the last of the other machines shutting
down. The last machine remaining acquires IP address
192.168.0.X. I thought they assigned 169.254.x.x to
themselves.
As soon as I bring another machine up on the LAN the
first machine looses its IP and starts the visual
behavior of being "unplugged" then "plugged" to the
network.
Obviously there's some contention as to how the machines
are trying to acquire their IP address. I've looked in
event viewer hoping to see some browser issue....nothing.
On the W2k machine in my test LAN however, its event
viewer does list a one minute approx. interval of
assigning itself the 169.254.X.X address.....but then
states that the address is allready taken. Yes thats
right it states that it assigned itself the 169 range
address. When the 192.168 address range is reported via
ipconfig.
I'm guesing I'm missing something simple. Just to burned
out to see it starring me in my face. I need to have this
fixed by Tues 8am.
Thanks. Scott
