Frustrating issue - Weird IP address

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booswig

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I have this weird issue that is causing alot of stress in my life. We are a small company that have 9 PC's connected on a LAN. All the PC's connect to a central 48-port switch (unmanaged Cisco or something, but a good quality switch).

I use the 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 IP addresses.

My PC is 192.168.0.1, with the next PC being ...2 etc. We generally all run Windows 7, though the newest PC's come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed.
I have allocated 192.168.0.150 - 192.168.0.200 as the DHCP addresses. These are assigned by a Cisco linksys router that is also the internet gateway. The address is 192.168.0.254 and all the other PC's use this gateway.

192.168.0.210 is our main file server, running Ubuntu Linux. No DHCP server component installed.
192.168.0.211 is a backup file server, running Ubuntu Linux. No DHCP server component installed.

192.168.0.246 is a HP CM4730 printer.
192.168.0.247 is a Panasonic DPC 354 printer.
192.168.0.248 is a Panasonic DPC 354 printer (yeah, we print alot at times)

192.168.0.251 is a second backup ADSL router. DHCP is disabled.
192.168.0.253 is our wireless router, an Asus RT-AC68U running DD-WRT. DHCP is disabled. Lets call this My_Gateway.
192.168.0.254 is our internet gateway and DHCP server.

But at times people (wired or not) connects to a weird outside address. Naturally they cannot connect to the local file server (and cannot work) though they have internet. This is normally whether I specify a local IP address or not. Lots of checking the IP and restarting seems to resolve the problem, but a significant cost of time.

I just bought two laptops yesterday, and it connected the the LAN no problem using the wireless (one have a specified IP and the other uses DHCP) cards. Yet, this morning none can connect to the local file server. Both connects to "My_Gateway". After some restarting and alot of swearing the one using DHCP connects to the file server. The other one refuses and still connect to the weird IP. Output from ipconfig is as follows:

Code: 
Windows IP Configuration


Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fd41:a618:5e46:1:7cc9:d044:9fc3:4168
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : fd41:a618:5e46:1:6c6b:80d9:719e:832e
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::7cc9:d044:9fc3:4168%6
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.65.104
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : C2-WDS66.COM

Tunnel adapter isatap.{870EBCE6-7AC0-461A-B626-70ABE9D07546}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

This is very weird as this laptop have the fixed address of 192.168.0.3 (Believe me, not going to post a screenshot). This has been screwing around with me for a few months, but now I need to resolve it. I guess that it is because there is some adaptor connected to the internet that also assign direct IP's as if the PC is connected directly to the internet. But, I have checked every PC, every setting, yet cannot find the mofo.

Can anyone help me. This can be via open post, telephone, email, PM or even a visit to our office (I will pay all costs as agreed).
 
booswig said:
I have this weird issue that is causing alot of stress in my life. We are a small company that have 9 PC's connected on a LAN. All the PC's connect to a central 48-port switch (unmanaged Cisco or something, but a good quality switch).

I use the 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 IP addresses.

My PC is 192.168.0.1, with the next PC being ...2 etc. We generally all run Windows 7, though the newest PC's come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed.
I have allocated 192.168.0.150 - 192.168.0.200 as the DHCP addresses. These are assigned by a Cisco linksys router that is also the internet gateway. The address is 192.168.0.254 and all the other PC's use this gateway.

192.168.0.210 is our main file server, running Ubuntu Linux. No DHCP server component installed.
192.168.0.211 is a backup file server, running Ubuntu Linux. No DHCP server component installed.

192.168.0.246 is a HP CM4730 printer.
192.168.0.247 is a Panasonic DPC 354 printer.
192.168.0.248 is a Panasonic DPC 354 printer (yeah, we print alot at times)

192.168.0.251 is a second backup ADSL router. DHCP is disabled.
192.168.0.253 is our wireless router, an Asus RT-AC68U running DD-WRT. DHCP is disabled. Lets call this My_Gateway.
192.168.0.254 is our internet gateway and DHCP server.

But at times people (wired or not) connects to a weird outside address. Naturally they cannot connect to the local file server (and cannot work) though they have internet. This is normally whether I specify a local IP address or not. Lots of checking the IP and restarting seems to resolve the problem, but a significant cost of time.

I just bought two laptops yesterday, and it connected the the LAN no problem using the wireless (one have a specified IP and the other uses DHCP) cards. Yet, this morning none can connect to the local file server. Both connects to "My_Gateway". After some restarting and alot of swearing the one using DHCP connects to the file server. The other one refuses and still connect to the weird IP. Output from ipconfig is as follows:

Code: 
Windows IP Configuration


Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fd41:a618:5e46:1:7cc9:d044:9fc3:4168
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : fd41:a618:5e46:1:6c6b:80d9:719e:832e
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::7cc9:d044:9fc3:4168%6
   Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.65.104
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : C2-WDS66.COM

Tunnel adapter isatap.{870EBCE6-7AC0-461A-B626-70ABE9D07546}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

This is very weird as this laptop have the fixed address of 192.168.0.3 (Believe me, not going to post a screenshot). This has been screwing around with me for a few months, but now I need to resolve it. I guess that it is because there is some adaptor connected to the internet that also assign direct IP's as if the PC is connected directly to the internet. But, I have checked every PC, every setting, yet cannot find the mofo.

Can anyone help me. This can be via open post, telephone, email, PM or even a visit to our office (I will pay all costs as agreed).
Click to expand...
Location would help if somebody had to come by :P

That 169 IP Address is an auto-allocated address if the system cannot contact a DHCP Server

Can you rather post a ipconfig/all ( since that address seems to indicate no static address )

I'd also disable IPv6 for a test
 
There is a problem with DHCP.
a) the "modem/router" giving out the addresses DHCP server is stopping the DHCP service
b) there is a network link problem between the PC/Laptop in getting to said Router.

Check the link lights for each cable, I would suggest doing one thing at a time to determine what the cause is. eg turn off and on the Router and then try connect again.
Then check the next thing if that fails
 
From the screenshot you are connected via wifi.Try in the following order

1) Disable Wifi and plug in network cable.See if you get a IP from DHCP server.If it works then
2) Your problem is getting a IP When on wifi.Reboot thw Wifii router/ap and check,Also check that the wifi router is connected and talking to the rest of the network.To me it sounds that the wifi router doesnt have a link to the rest of the network hence why you cant get a dhcp ip.
 
Laptop is being assigned an APIPA address, make sure Obtain automatic IP address is enabled.
 
I had this issue yesterday on our domain. The only thing that solved this was to update the Intel network card driver on the E6540 range of laptops we use.
 
Either install DHCP on one of the Linux boxes or install a small server running Windows Server with DHCP and have that handle the DHCP as the DHCP servers on routers are sometimes rather *****e and hard to manage compared to a proper DHCP server.

While you are at it setup an internal DNS server to resolve internal network names.
 
Great. I updated the router firmware and would consider getting a better dsl router/gateway if need be.

Grim, I see you are in Pretoria east area. Any interest to come and have a nice cuppa ... you can select from at least 6 methods of coffee making, form a selection of freshly roasted beans, freshly grounded to perfection. Perhaps you can have a look and see if you can assist me in sorting out my issues.
 
When your network cards have APIPA addresses it means you are most probably having Dhcp server issues. You can test by enabling dhcp on your other backup router (disable dhcp on the current one the 0.254) . You can also disable ipv6 on the clients and run pure ipv4 for testing
 
As everyone has said the 169 is a default address should no manual address be given or non allocated from the dhcp server.

A dhcp server might not serve an address either because it is unreachable or it has no IP addresses available to serve. Remember when an address is served, there is a lease time ( at least this is how mikrotik works ) so even if the device disconnects, that address becomes reserved until the lease expires.

Perhaps try lowering the lease time to 30 min or something ( I know Mikrotik by default use to be 3 days ) otherwise check in the server the leases served and see if you have any available addresses within the pool. Obviously if there is then this is not the problem but given that the problem goes away after rebooting it could possibly be the cause as the leases are removed upon reboot.
 
Is the laptop connected via lan and wifi? Switch off wifi (or disable) and test? or Disable lan adapter and test...

Where did you set the fixed ip?
 
Last edited:
There is never more than 5 devices attached via DHCP, and that is mainly one to 5 cellphones. I assigned fixed IP's for security reasons.
 
If you can connect sucessfully with a LAN cable, check your wifi AP.
If you cannot connect successfully via LAN, check the DHCP Router. Make sure that device doesnt have any limitations on the number of simultaneous IP 's connected. I've seen some routers that do not allow more than 32 devices at the same time.

Try connecting directly to the DHCP router with a LAN cable that you know is working 100%.
If the wifi AP is the problem, double check that the LAN cable to that AP is working. Also check your firmware and update it if there is a newer version (i had a similar issues with a Tenda AP. After I updated the firmware, everything was fine).

Good idea to check that all the cables are properly connected in your switch as well.
 
What's your router's cap on the number of WiFi devices that may be connected?
 
The router's cap is 10 devices. As we speak there are only 2 devices on it, and it seldom exceeds 5 devices (cellphones included). Most PC's connect via a lan cable and have a fixed address, but this has happened before with PC's that received this weird IP.

The laptop in question is a a girl that only comes to the office once a week. I therefore want her to use a wireless connection. Whether I connect a lan cable or use WIFI, the issue is intermitted.

I now tried using the DHCP server on the ASUS router, yet the same problem when I use WIFI. With a LAN cable the problem is less persistent. Guess a bad WIFI connection is also to blame.

The servers use Ubuntu 10 server. I tried installing dhcp3-server, but it cannot get the file, even after running apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. Gives error about file not found. I also tried to install isc-dhcp-server that that was also a fail. I have edited the source.list file to point it to http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu but that did not resolve the issue, still tells me stuff about not finding the files.

Going to drink a pot of coffee, kick the cat, eat a pound of butter then work on something else. I will try again tomorrow else redo the backup server to ubuntu 14, make that the main server then upgrade the current server. Then I will try again. Frustrating.

I tried to install
 
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