DHCP client nightmare !!!

[shamilton-wilkes]

This seems to be a common problem - I apologise for that, but have been very methodical in my testing and have not been able to find an answer.

Some clients work fine, they connect to the network, authenticate with variously nothing/EAP-TLS/LEAP/shared key WEP, grab a DHCP address and everything is good.

Some don't, even if I turn off WEP on the AP and have a completely open network, they can connect, but they never get a DHCP address and so can't work.

The AP is a 352 running 11.21 or 11.23T (no change)

The clients that don't work are MS Pocket PC 3.0 and Windows XP. But I have other clients running XP that work fine. Some of the working users are using Cisco cards some are using Orinocos, the Pocket PC devices that don't work have Symbol CF cards.

Any ideas ?

[b.withrow]

Are you using DNS on the 352's?

[shamilton-wilkes]

No, does this make a difference ?

[eto]

Hi, I am also having this problem. What I noticed is that if I leave the client alone and come back later, it will eventually pick up an IP. But running "ipconfig /renew" will time out. I am associated to my 350, but I can't grab an IP. My client is running Windows 2000 Pro. If you were able to solve your problem, would you mind pointing me in the right direction. Thanks, ET.

[ED CARMODY]

For the Symbol clients, are you trying to use 128-bit WEP? The 802.11 standard left 128-bit WEP implementation up to the vendors; some interoperate (like Cisco and Orinoco), some may not. Read your Symbol docs.

You're not using MAC filtering on the APs, are you? I still get burned by forgetting to add a MAC once in a while.

The cisco client for PPC does have some issues with DHCP, try upgrading all drivers, firmware, client utilities etc.

Your problem XP clients may have the "let windows control my wireless connections" setting checked. This will screw up a Cisco client.

What happens if you statically configure the clients' IP? Can you ping the DHCP server?

Do the problem users reside in a particular area? If they associate, what are your RF parameters looking like? If you try to run an site-survey active mode test, what do you get?

Have you tried opening a TAC case?

[shamilton-wilkes]

TAC aren't interested as problems don't happen with Cisco clients.

Yes, I think the problem is WEP related. I haven't had any Symbol problems lately, it turns out the device I was testing with was bad.

With the other clients, they do seem to work if I static their IP addresses, I wonder whether it's a timing thing, where they don't get on the network fast enough to get a DHCP lease...

Now I've got the Symbols working, I'm just telling people to buy 352 cards for their PC's /iPacs.