DHCP won't issue addresses

[Bill769]

We've been using a E1200 router for some years now.  It is the only DHCP source on our Microsoft  workgroup at the office.  There is no domain.  With increasing frequency when the half dozen PCs running W7 which are connected via Ethernet cables are booted up every work day the DHCP service on the router will not give an IP address from the selected range in its settings to many of the workstations.  We usually have to pull the power plug on the router, wait for it to reboot and then an IP address will be given.  

It's been years since I've set the router up and I've been toying with the idea of hitting the reset button and starting over with it but is there anything that I can look at or errors to clear that would help clear up this problem?

Thanks.

[Scott Fella]

That is a home router that you can find the manual online if you decide to factory reset.  Have you looked at trying to replace that our possibly use a DHCP server like a Windows Server or maybe even a Linux box to do your DHCP?

[Bill769]

From your keyboard to God's ears ... I've tried to convince the the boss to go with a true server set up for years like the ones I set up many times while working as a tech director in schools but to no avail.  The software and licensing is more expensive than the server hardware when you don't have that education discount so the director can't get over the sticker shock of it all.  That's why after a decade-plus of being the techie for this office we're still on a workgroup setting.

There is the reset button on the back of the router, I know.  I hit it more than once back when we first employed it years ago but once we got it set with address ranges and MAC addresses for the wireless devices &etc. we use we've not really needed to get back into it since then. 

While trying to troubleshoot this issue, however, about 3 weeks ago while I was in the settings for this router I changed the access protocol from what I thought was internal, private access http to https and now I can't access it from anywhere inside the private network.  It refuses all connections.  I have been able to get a login page from outside the network, my home, by entering the external IP address in my browser.  When I have time I'll have to go in and do this locally as I don't want to send anything over the Internet that could compromise the router.

As per the boss' typical conservative attitude regarding expenses it wasn't until recently that we put a UPS on the router to protect it from the numerous power outages that we've been experiencing this year.  I've wondered if any of them may have messed with the basic program on the router and if resetting it would be the cure.  I'm pretty sure, if memory serves, that the router is set up to check for updates by itself.  Other than that I can't figure out why it sometimes won't give out an address in the morning without pulling the plug and letting it reboot.

Oh, and as far as Linux goes, I've never messed with it outside of my last school and the guy I worked under couldn't keep that server running long enough to get any personal education out of it.

Thanks.