using static ip in FHC

Our FHC has 10 wired workstations a printServer and a wireless Access Port. The 6 workstations are on 24/7 with battery Backup. The last few months ALL 6 workstations have been randomly comming up with DUPLICATE IP's. A reboot solves the problem. Since all are using DHCP. I'm thinking the problem is a difference in winXP and the DHCP Server lease times. My question is going to static ip's on the 6 workstatins would be a quick fix! Are there any known problems with this fix?

KenRichins wrote:I'm thinking the problem is a difference in winXP and the DHCP Server lease times.

The lease time is what the DHCP says is the lease time. Is the DHCP server getting reset? If so, it will forget what it's issued and will issue duplicates. Is everyone's clock reasonably synchronized so that the DHCP and all the workstations agree when the lease expires? Are you sure there's only one DHCP server active on the network? That WAP could have a DHCP. The Cisco PIX box most certainly has one.

One issue with going with static IPs is that then you no longer get updates on other parameters such as changes to the DNS server. When you go static, you have to supply ALL the information and manually keep it ALL up to date.

Unless your FHC sees daily use, I'd have a hard time justifying keeping the stations on 24/7. Even then it would be rough.

The WAP is the CISCO Airport from the Church. I don't think it is serving DHCP as my laptop when connected has the same tcp/ip settings as the workstations. There was a wireless access point that one of the techs added BEFORE we switched the cisco airport from odasey to WPA . That has been removed so maybe that was the problem. I guess I will just wait and see if the problem goes away.

Thanks for responding with your information.

KenRichins wrote:The WAP is the CISCO Airport from the Church. I don't think it is serving DHCP as my laptop when connected has the same tcp/ip settings as the workstations. There was a wireless access point that one of the techs added BEFORE we switched the cisco airport from odasey to WPA . That has been removed so maybe that was the problem. I guess I will just wait and see if the problem goes away.

Thanks for responding with your information.

Sorry Ken for stepping on your post but in the interest of not confusing some readers I will make some clarifications.
1. The Church provided wireless access point (WAP) is a Cisco Aeronet 1200 series
2. Odyssey Client is the third party software the Church has licensed to control wireless connections for Church owned (clerk) computers. The network SSID used in the Odyssey Client configuration is named 'moroni' and it uses the wired equivalency privacy (WEP) security protocol.
3. LDSAccess is another SSID the Church can configure on the WAPs that uses the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security protocol.

Note that in Europe/Africa the Cisco 1100 series of the Access Points are used.

Regards,
Patrik