Problems acquiring network address

[jspence]

I'm running Win XP on three laptops - one Toshiba and 2 Dells. Everything worked great when we left town and when we returned one of the Dells and the Toshiba connected as expected.
The problem is the the second Dell - I get "acquiring network address" on both the wireless as well as the local adapter.
Nothing has been changed. All computers were locked up while we were gone.
Any ideas??

[Deadeye81]

Hi John, and welcome to the Lounge!

The following is a standard procedure in your situation. Your laptop is having difficulty in obtaining an IP address from the router (DHCP). Do the following from the problem laptop.

1. Unplug the cable/DSL modem.
2. Unplug the wireless router.
3. Wait 60 seconds, then plug in the modem.
4. When the modem is online, plug in the wireless router.
5. On your laptop, open a command prompt by clicking Start, Run, type cmd, and click Ok.
6. Once you have a command prompt, type “ipconfig /flushdns”. (w/o quotation marks)
7. Next, type “ipconfig /release”. (w/o quotation marks)
8. Finally, type in "ipconfig /renew". (w/o quotation marks)

If you get an error message about not being able to contact your DHCP server, then make sure Windows is managing your laptop wireless and not software that came with your laptops' wireless device.

In cmd type ping 127.0.0.1 . This will ping your own laptop. If you see error in the report, then TCP/IP is not configured properly on your laptop.

You can go to cmd and type in ipconfig , press enter and you will see the DNS suffix, IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway address for your laptops' primary network connection. To see the details about every available network connection type into cmd ipconfig /all . Check that your subnet mask and default gateway address are the same as on your other computers.

Post your results from all the above back here.

[jspence]

I performed the steps you suggest - (flushdns) successfully flushed cache - (release) ip address has already been released - (renew) an error occurred on wireless. The RCP server is unavailable.

I finally got a connection - I went to started services and compared them to the good dell and found that DHCP, network connections, network dde, smtp, tcp/ip helper were not started. Once I did that - the renew worked and I got an ip address.

One additional thing - I was getting "limited or no connectivity" on the wireless and that must have been due to one of the services not being started.

Thanks for the suggestions. Note "start services.msc" from "cmd" starts started services.
jbs/

[Deadeye81]

Hi John,

I am glad to hear your difficulties are resolved. After I posted the steps to take, I thought about the services and wrote down a list of them to check to be sure they were started. That was going to be my follow up if you received error messages after running ipconfig release and renew.

Your solution will help others who undoubtedly will experience the same issue at some point. Thanks for posting your solution.

[jspence]

I checked again after reboot - the culprit was DHCP Client wasn't starting. Still don't know why since it was set to Automatic.
Anyway - thanks for YOUR help. And do post the list.
jbs/

[Deadeye81]

The following is a list of services to check to verify their status in a "no connection" situation:

DHCP Client set to Automatic
DNS Client set to Automatic
Network Connections set to Manual or Automatic
Security Accounts Manager set to Automatic
Wireless Zero Configuration set to Automatic

For file sharing:

Server set to Automatic

All above services should be verified as started.

[Tony]

My desktop PC running WindowsXP is also unable to “acquire network address”, this began subsequent to the reboot AVG suggested after an update. AVG had also just white listed C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\netbt.sys

I carefully followed the instructions in your post what follows are the ones that gave trouble.

ipconfig/renew
Error message “An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : The RPC server is unavailable”

Then did a:- ping 127.0.0.1 without a problem

Then an ipconfig giving
DNS Suffix : lan
IP Address : 0.0.0.0
Subnet mask : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway : (a blank – no data)

Checking Services
DHCP Client was set to Automatic BUT HAD NOT STARTED
DNS Client set to Automatic and had started
Network Connections were set to Manual and had started
Security Accounts Manager set to Automatic and started
Wireless Zero Configuration set to Automatic and started

When I attempted to start the DHCP Client I received the error message:- “Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion”

When booted and running from a Ubuntu cd the PC connects to the internet with no trouble, so I think the problem is with Windows rather than the network card or the physical connection.

I use Soluto to keep an eye on boot times and if the router is turned off the PC boots in 40secs but if the router is on it takes 2:38

I would welcome suggestions!

Tony

[ruirib]

At first sight, seems AVG did something that it should have not done - a service deletion??! Can you restore the system to a point where it was working?

Otherwise, you can try and use Windows Services Dependency Viewer to try to find out what is missing.

[Tony]

Thanks for your prompt answer.
I did try a restore almost as soon as I the problem showed, I have just tried again, at the earliest date available, getting on all occasions “Your computer cannot be restored to:” – I have used the restore facility fairly recently, so this failure is new as well.

Just downloaded (via my laptop) and installed WSDV and looked at the DHCP Client section. Lots of information! But guessing that the “State” should not be “Stopped”; status is “OK” – Startmode “Auto” – ProcessId “0”

The DHCP Client Dependent is a blank.
The DHCP Client Antecedent has in it AFD and TCP/IP, the latter leads into TCP/IP Protocol Driver, which leads to IPSEC driver – both are running.

When I run WSDV on my portable in the DHCP Client section there is an additional Antecedent of “NetBios over Tcpip. (Is this part of Wifi, which the portable is using, or the fact it is missing from the desktop part of the problem?)

I then checked on the desktop the TCP/IP NetBios Helper. The State was “Stopped” on the desktop but “Running” on the portable.

Hope the above information is useful….

[ruirib]

Are all the antecedents running?

[Tony]

Again, thanks for your prompt answer

Antecedents for the DHCP Client are:-
AFD – State: Running - Status: OK - Started: True

TCP/IP Protocol Driver – State: Running - Status: OK - Started: True

TCP/IP Protocol Driver has a sub
IPSEC driver – State: Running - Status: OK - Started: True

It seems only the DHCP Client itself is “Stopped” with a ProcessId of 0

[ruirib]

So if you try to start the DHCP client, do any errors show up in the Windows Event Viewer?

[Tony]

I have not used the Event Viewer before but after some experimenting I closed it down then using Services attempted to start the DHCP Client, this failed.

I then opened the Event Viewer, which showed an error in the Service Control Manager at the time I attempted to start the DHCP Client. The message was “The DHCP Client service depends on the following nonexistent service:NetBT

[ruirib]

So NetBT seems to be the cause of your problems. See if this helps: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic9007.html

[Tony]

Looked good but when I got into RegEdit at:-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/NetBT

There was no NetBT listed,
there was NetBIOS, NetDDE, NetDDEdsdm, Netlogon, Netman, NetTcpPortSharing but not the item suggested.

Out of interest I checked the registry on the portable, NetBT was listed in there.

I then did some Googling and found
http://www.christowles.com/2011/11/h...indows-xp.html

Should I attempt follow this? But I hope you have a less complex suggestion!