Re: Does anyone have a workaround for Windows 95 not asking for new ip when booting?

[Shawn Mamros <[e-mail]>]

>Unfortunately, Windows 95 does not look for a new IP address when booting
>if its license has not expired.  This is a problem if while down the user
>moved to a different subnet.  Does anyone have a workaround for this?
>Our user base is not technically literate.  They will not accept a 
>solution like 1. run winipcfg 2. release address 3. renew.  This will
>all have to be hidden from them.

Ideally, this shouldn't be an issue.  If the DHCP client believes it
has a valid lease, it starts in the INIT-REBOOT state (as opposed to
the INIT state) and broadcasts a DHCPREQUEST requesting the old address.
Assuming there is a DHCP server out there which will answer requests
for that network, the server should (again ideally) transmit a DHCPNAK
back when the requested address does not correspond to the network that
the client is currently on.  Once the client receives that message, it
must revert to the INIT state and use DHCPDISCOVER to find an appropriate
lease for that network.  All this should happen without any need for
user intervention.

I've just experimented with Microsoft's Windows 95 DHCP client on
my machine here, switching it back and forth between networks, and both
client and server (the DHCP server in our case is part of FTP Software's
OnNet Server product, version 2.0) do exactly what I described above.
(I also know for a fact that the DHCP client supplied with FTP's
OnNet for Windows 95 also behaves that way. :-)  So, assuming you're
using a server that will NAK when it detects a client requesting an
address from the wrong network (and I believe that most do, or at least
should), you should have no trouble.  If not, you should contact your
DHCP server vendor about supporting this feature, or replace them with
someone who does...

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: [e-mail]