well heres the problem. at the computers at my school, there is one computer in the network that always needs its ip address reset. all the computers in the network are set to automaticly obtain an ip address, but this one will not connect to the internet in the morning. to make it connect to the internet, every morning i have to run command prompt and enter "ipconfig/release" then "ipconfig/renew" which fixes the problem until the next day, where the same computer will not connect to the internet and i have to repeat the process. i am not exactly tech savvy when it comes to networking so i was wondering if anybody could help me out. it would be apprectiated. (sP) -crazylegs-

oh yeah i'm running windows xp pro...and it works even after reseting...thanks

It sounds like the lease on the IP address is expiring. However, first things first. Get the Network TCP/IP properties up in Windows for a working PC and this one. Compare everything. Is it identical? You get there by viewing Control Panel -> Network Connections -> if I remember correctly

I'll wait for your answer. If they are identical then its on to stage 2 diagnosis....

yes, the settings for tcp/ip are exactly the same on both the broken and working computer. all the computers in the district are set to obtain the ip address, subnet mask ete. automaticly.

Does it matter if this is the only PC turned on? What I need to know is if you turn off the other PCs on the network does this one still exhibit the problem. If so then definitely something with the PC if not then something to do with the DHCP server.

While we're at it, what is acting as your DHCP server? A physical Windows server, Linux box or a hardware router or something else entirely!

sorry for the delay in responding to your message, i did not have acess to a computer. now as for what my dhcp server is, i am about 80% sure its a windows box. see this computer is one of many in our schools network. as i am in the libery of this school, the only changes that i can make are localy to the ten or so computers physicaly here. the servers and all that other stuff are located in some other building which i dont have acess to. if the problem cant be solved then it is ok. i disconnected all the computers in the local network and exept for the computer in question. i restarted and it works fine. does this help?

never mind, thank you for all the help. i just got all of the computers to connect fine. thanks for the help in solving the problem

-zach-

Glad its wokring. I suspect the DHCP server is running out of addresses to hand out to your 10 or so computers. If the problem comes back and is intermittent then that's a very likely cause. If it stays away then perhaps not but I'm glad its all working for you.