DHCP and Static IP issues

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Dr.DieBrein

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Hello everyone,

I am having a bit of an issue with some of the PC's on our network.
We're a church and I'm the best we have when it comes to a network techy.

This is what I threw together on Photoshop of what our network looks like:

Network Map.jpg

The problem we are having is that some computers are able to get DHCP address and settings, but others get a 169.254.XX.XXX address. I have looked everywhere online and I haven't been able to figure out the problem.

Some of the PC's that I try to connect are brand new, and have new Windows installs on them, whereas others are ancient laptops and then anything in between.

In one case we have an office with one Ethernet line coming in and then connecting to a 8 port gigabit switch. Four computers are connected to this 8 port switch. One of them works fine with DHCP while the other three works neither with DHCP or a static IP where I configure the DNS, gateway all the same as the first computer(obviously unique IP addresses, working one is 192.168.1.203, so the others I made 204 205 and 206, also I did scan to make sure there's no conflicts)

Also with the wifi connection, sometimes a person's PC would connect and everything would be fine, or it would connect but the IP settings are incorrect( DNS blank, 169 IP, etc.)


As far as I have been able to find out, this is due to a PC not being able to reach the DHCP server, but I don't see how of four PC's effectively sharing a connection to the Router, only one of them is able to connect.

I can't find any common denominator among all the computers having problems.

They all have various operating systems( Mac OSX, Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10)

They connect through various switches and Access points. Ethernet, WLAN etc.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Well a 169.254 aka APIPA addressing is only possible if there is no DHCP or its misconfigured, are you sure there is only 1 DHCP on the network because there could be 3 acting DHCP's and they are conflicting.

Why isnt there a sever PC on the network? DHCP should be installed on that, not the router.
 
Well to be honest I don't know. I'm not really a network engineer or something, I'm actually video editor so I don't really know how to configure these kinds of things. When we were on ADSL and had three pieces of equipment(router, WLAN AP, switch) everything was simple and easy. Now we got frogfoot fibre from VOX telecom, and they installed those first two pieces of equipment.

How would I check settings or config anything on those two things? Or otherwise set up a DHCP server on a PC?

Basically what I'm saying is help me I don't know what's going on.
 
Dr.DieBrein said:
Well to be honest I don't know. I'm not really a network engineer or something, I'm actually video editor so I don't really know how to configure these kinds of things. When we were on ADSL and had three pieces of equipment(router, WLAN AP, switch) everything was simple and easy. Now we got frogfoot fibre from VOX telecom, and they installed those first two pieces of equipment.

How would I check settings or config anything on those two things? Or otherwise set up a DHCP server on a PC?

Basically what I'm saying is help me I don't know what's going on.
Click to expand...

Looks like they made a cock up of the network, im thinking get rid of the Cisco 1900 as you already have a router on the network.

Are you sure you dont have a sever on the network?
 
Oh and also I noticed that I forgot to add in the two other wifi access points we have, (based on the pic) there's one where the open ports are and there's one where the bottom 8port switch is.
 
Yup fairly certain, they didn't touch any of our PC's and didn't bring in anything other than those two things.
 
I just tried cutting the Cisco out of the pipeline(connecting the switches directly to the router fibre router).

My PC got a DHCP IP, DNS, etc. but there was no internet connection on my or any other PC's so I think the Cisco does serve some purpose.
 
Dr.DieBrein said:
I just tried cutting the Cisco out of the pipeline(connecting the switches directly to the router fibre router).

My PC got a DHCP IP, DNS, etc. but there was no internet connection on my or any other PC's so I think the Cisco does serve some purpose.
Click to expand...

Did you connect the fibre router to a switch?
 
That planet switch might be giving out DHCP and also the routerboard, turn it off on the routerboard.
 
I'm not sure how to do that. I don't think it has a web interface... I don't really know how to access it otherwise. I'm browsing on their Miro's website to try find some info.
 
I don't think it's possible to turn off the routerboard, as our fibre connects directly to it. I'll try disconnecting the planet.
 
I tried turning off the planet switch, didn't solve the problem (one thing that did happen was one of the people who was connecting through called me, sounding a little upset :whistle:)
 
Not turn off the routerboard, just disable DHCP.

Maybe it has a rollover cable or console port to sonnect to.
 
Is the DHCP pool big enough, maybe you have more devices than available IP addresses as configured in the DHCP server. Worth checking out.
 
So after getting tired and going home last night, I think I've finally solved the problem this morning.

Rickster, I think you were right in your first post about conflicting DHCP servers.

Some of the WLAN ap's we were using were originally routers, and I think they were making a mess of things. I've disconnected everything that could possibly have a DHCP server on it, and then restarted everything everywhere. That seemed to do the trick(not for the people connected via wifi and the planet switch) but at least everyone was getting DHCP addresses and DNS settings. After this I reconnected the planet switch(that was about 30min ago and I've yet to see an issue arise). Next I'm gonna go into the WLAN APs' settings and scratch around there.

Does anyone have some advice on how WLAN AP's should be set up in a situation like this?
Dynamic IP or Static IP, etc.
Mode(AP, bridged AP, etc.)

I don't really have much experience setting up Wifi networks.
 
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