DHCP Client Does Not Immediately Renew Address

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) clients may lose their IP address information for up to five minutes after their DHCP lease has expired.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The following is a small section of RFC 1541 that governs lease expiration behavior:

4.4.4 Reacquisition and expiration ...

   In both RENEWING and REBINDING state, if the client receives no
   response to its DHCPREQUEST message, the client should wait one-half
   the remaining time until the expiration of T1 (in RENEWING state) and
   T2 (in REBINDING state) down to a minimum of 60 seconds, before
   retransmitting the DHCPREQUEST message.

   If the lease expires before the client receives a DHCPACK, the client
   moves to INIT state, MUST immediately stop any other network
   processing and requests network initialization parameters as if the
   client were uninitialized. If the client then receives a DHCPACK
   allocating that client its previous network address, the client SHOULD
   continue network processing. If the client is given a new network
   address, it MUST NOT continue using the previous network address and
   SHOULD notify the local users of the problem. 

Additional query words: request comments

Keywords : kbnetwork kbbug4.00 ntnetserv ntprotocol nttcp NTSrvWkst
Version : winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb