Hi all. I'm having a problem on my network that I can't seem to resolve. Here are my specs:

1 T1 Line
1 SuSE 9.2 Server
2 Cisco Fiber Switches
15 Cisco Routers

I'm not sure this is a DHCP issue as my config file is setup correct, but you'll see why I call this a DHCP Server issue.

All my clients are happily receiving IP address from the server and all seem to be 100% okay. All 100 clients receive an IP and can browse through the Internet no problem. SSH / VNC / Webmin are working perfectly and I only mention this to show that everything seems to be working properly.

Here is where my problem lies. A client will be connected to the Internet and suddenly the Internet stops working. A quick retrieval of their IP verifies that they are still connected with the server, yet they are getting no Internet access. I have experienced this personally, so it is not an isolated incident.

The second I renew the IP address the Internet promptly start working. The default lease time for each client is 6 months with an IP pool from 192.168.0.50-192.168.0.250. I have tried everything to figure this out.

All routers / switches / DHCP.conf have been reconfigured, yet I receive the same problem .... although since I reconfigured all the routers it seems to be happening less frequently. At first it would drop Internet every ~20 minutes, now maybe twice a day.

Any ideas are extremely appreciated .... if I can resolve this I am guaranteed a pay raise. (and I'm a university student who could use it.)

Thanks,

C. Jeff Keeme

What type of clients are you using? there is a known bug in win98 regarding the subnet mask.

YOu might also check ifconfig / ipconfig /winipcfg of the host to verify that all of the settings are as they should be. Also you should check your lease table to verify that they hosat in question is still listed. There are some dhcp server products that set up rouing on a per-host basis and if that setup expires then it could be the source of your problem.

In short, significantly more detail is require to resolve this:

Can you ping the default gateway of the host when it seems to lose it's connection? if so, what is the last machine that the host can ping? Can the host ping the DNS server? can the host resolve names to IP's Have you cleared the cache of the hosts, since Interent explorer tend to deal badly with corrupted temporary internet files (cache)?

Normal trouble shoot rules apply:
determine the source of the failure; be it physical or software related. wherever the problem lies it will be identified by a disconnect: actual or virtual

95% of my clients are Windows XP. I'm thinking it has something to do with SuSE 9.2 as an older installation of RedHat 7.3 did not bring about this problem (other problems did occur, but nothing relating to this).

I'll have to test to make sure a client can still ping the server when this occurence happens. I'm still stumped.

Any other thoughts?

I need thta whole list to really troubleshoot the problem