From: Chris G 

John,

That could very well be my problem.  I have 3 Cisco Catalyst 3548XL
switches in a logical cluster.  They have not been updated in a couple
years (no support agreement) and (I'm sure) they need it.  Any good
recommendations on web sites or books that talk about a cluster of
switches?  I'm afraid to mess with things if I don't know what I'm getting
into.

Chris G.


John Beckett  wrote in
news:3e6f14e8.10732692{at}216.144.1.254:

> Chris G  wrote in message
> news::
>> I have recently implemented a DHCP server on Windows 2000 at a job
>> site ...,
>>  I've found the Win 9x clients frequently will not obtain an IP
>>  address
>
> An outbreak of your problem occurred maybe a year ago. The problem was
> a Cisco (and otheres??) switch. Something like this:
>
> The W98 machine has been off. The switch has noticed no traffic on the
> port. W98 starts up and broadcasts for a DHCP server. The switch
> notices the traffic but does a spanning-tree check of some kind,
> before passing the workstation traffic. Meanwhile, W98 times out the
> DHCP and generates the 169.254.x.x APIPA address.
>
> Solution (I have never done this): Turn on the portfast option on the
> switch. A Google search is sure to find more info.
>
> I think another solution was to drink a cup of coffee after switching
> W98 on and before trying to log on.
>
> John
>

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