[WinMac] RE: DHCP: to be or not to be?

Neil Jedrzejewski(jed[at]grafx.co.uk)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 07:20:34 -0500

> From my reading of this and other lists, I foresee problems for
> users. I'm
> particularly concerned about Mac users (of which I am one). So do we (PC
> and Mac users) gain or lose by this change? All informed opinions and
> experiences are welcome as I'd like to garner views from all sides of the
> issue.

Hi Lesley,

I have little experience of DHCP but of what I've had I've had some success
and problems.

First of all, several people have said that they have problems using NT as
a DHCP server when connecting with Macs. One of the biggest culprits seems
to be under the Advanced User Mode settings of the Mac TCP/IP control panel.

It says to 'Load TCP/IP when needed' and people have reported that when
the protocol hasn't been used for a while it drops it, thus leading the
MS DHCP server to believe it has finished with the lease of the IP. When
the Mac then tries to reload the protocol and use the last IP, its been
given to someone else or unavailable.

People have said setting the TCP/IP control panel to have it loaded perman-
ently helps and also increasing the lease time on IP addresses.

On a second note, I've used the DHCPD daemon that comes with Redhat Linux
5.2 running on a Sun Sparc for a while now. The Mac's don't have any
problem with it, but the PC's do. It is documented that there are quirks
in MS TCP/IP protocols that don't like DHCP and despite my server offering
IP addresses, the PC won't accept them.

I've installed all the MS recommended patches and hot-fixes to try and
solve it and nothing works. At present, I have a Microsoft engineer calling
me about twice a day trying to solve this.

Hope this is of interest.

- Jed

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