limited connectivity , DHCP client already in use

Question

Hello, I have a dell dimesion 2400, linksys ezxs55w wired router ( just bought), and hp compaq nc600o laptop. I am trying to hook up the two computers to the one router with no luck. I hooked up the dimension with a cat5 cable and the hp with a cat6 cable to the back of the router. I can only run one computer at a time on the internet. I get a limited connectivity message when I try to enable the lan connection in the network settings menu. I tried to power down everything and then bring everything back on one at a time, no luck. I tried to do an ipconfig/release and ipconfig/renew on both computers-- i get both computers to show same ip address and still , no luck. Both firewalls are off. Dimension has XP home and the HP has XP professional.  When I go to the run prompt I also get this message ' An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection: The DHCPclient has obtained an IP address that is already in use on the network. The local interface will be disabled until the DHCP client can obtain a new address.'-------------Any suggestions?

decoder101 · Answer

check internet protocol (TCP/IP) properties if it's set to OBTAIN IP automatically... (that should be the case for both computers)

phil7894560 · Answer

I did find the tcp/ip. They are both set to automatic.

phil7894560 · Answer

How do I do that? Thanks for your time. Phil

decoder101 · Answer

what's the IP address that both your HP and DImension computers are getting?   you mentioned they are the same...

phil7894560 · Answer

68.78.76.158

jmwills · Answer

You have two machines connected directly to a modem via a hub or switch, correct?  You need a router.

phil7894560 · Answer

I have the linksys ezxs55w that router that I just hooked up.

sentinel-master · Answer

By the look of what you describe I therefore believe the DHCP scope of your router is limited to 1 IP addres.

Login into your router from one connected PC, web browse to default gateway and check the range of the scope of Offered IP addresses.......you'll probably find its currnetly only one.....increase it.

You may need to use NAT/PAT as the address you posted is not RFC1918

     10.0.0.0        -   10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
     172.16.0.0      -   172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
     192.168.0.0     -   192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

And therefore you probabaly only have limited IP addresses from your ISP.

Hence turn on NAT and use network (e.g) 10.0.0.2 -> 10.0.0.55 to give youself more home LAN address space with 10.0.0.1 as your router DFG.

jmwills · Answer

With a Linksys router, you will automatically be in the 192.168.1.x scope.  Set the Router to obtain an address automatically and use DHCP for the clients.

phil7894560 · Answer

How do I log into my router to make these changes, and thank you again for all your help. It is forums such as this that make the web such a great place for everyone. Phil

jmwills · Answer

Open a web browser and got to:   http://192.168.1.1   Wehn prompted for a username, leave it blank and use 'admin' for the password.

phil7894560 · Answer

The connection has timed out

The server at 192.168.1.1 is taking too long to respond.

    *   The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
          moments.

    *   If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
          connection.

    *   If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
          that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

This is the response i get when trying to access that page.
Phil

sentinel-master · Answer

Since you originally mentioned that the DHCP address you were offered was

68.78.76.158

I think we need to first check the Default Gateway (i.e router IP address ) , as I suspect its not default.

Can you do Start -> Run -> cmd "you will need to type the three letters cmd & press enter"

This should bring up a shell window - then just type ipconfig/all and hit return. Please post output here so we can check info/status. If you are not sure how to cut & paste from that window-shell - pipe the info to a log file....i.e ipconfig/all > iplog.txt

And then you have a text file iplog which contains the info we need.

phil7894560 · Answer

'If you are not sure how to cut & paste from that window-shell - pipe the info to a log file....i.e   ipconfig/all > iplog.txt' I tried to do this but after I typed in 'ipconfig/all > iplog.txt' nothing happened. Phil

jmwills · Answer

'ipconfig/all' is not a valid command   use this:  ipconfig /all >> C:\ipconfig.txt  (watch the spacing) Go to the C Drive and paste the results of that file here.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

limited connectivity , DHCP client already in use

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