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Question

apipa ip issue in wirless networks

Jan 23, 2015 1:36AM PST

hi!!!hey i work for a wireless broadband company and i get a lot of complaints where customer is using LAN and they get APIPA address instead of a valid ip even though the network connectivity and system is fine....some cust complaint that their system frquently aquires and leaves the valid ip !!!the wirless technology we use is WI-MAX inckuding ap and cpe ...can anyone explain why this problem occurs!!!!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
There are some hundred reasons.
Jan 23, 2015 1:42AM PST

So I can't list them all here. Over time your techs should collect them all but your techs should get some top 10 to work with. It's not a mystery at all but given the rather long list of causes I won't type them all here.

Here's a thing though. I'm finding folk are growing impatient with how things work. If the machine boots up and takes a minute to get a good IP then some will call that a failure. You may have to develop a good script to talk about how things are sometimes not instant.
Bob

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Answer
maybe your customers
Jan 23, 2015 2:09AM PST

just have a funny accent. You'd be amazed at some of things I thought I heard on a tech help call obviously routed to India.

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Answer
Is this funny or what?!
Jan 23, 2015 2:53AM PST
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/APIPA.html

"Short for Automatic Private IP Addressing, a feature of later Windows operating systems. With APIPA, DHCP clients can automatically self-configure an IP address and subnet mask when a DHCP server isn't available. When a DHCP client boots up, it first looks for a DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address and subnet mask.

If the client is unable to find the information, it uses APIPA to automatically configure itself with an IP address from a range that has been reserved especially for Microsoft. The IP address range is 169.254.0.1 through 169.254.255.254. The client also configures itself with a default class B subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. A client uses the self-configured IP address until a DHCP server becomes available.

The APIPA service also checks regularly for the presence of a DHCP server (every five minutes, according to Microsoft). If it detects a DHCP server on the network, APIPA stops, and the DHCP server replaces the APIPA networking addresses with dynamically assigned addresses."


What another waste from Microsoft. More interference than anything. If there is no DHCP just give yourself a static IP address in the range of the router and be done with it. Seems this looks ONLY for windows computers and one must serve the function of a DHCP server among those windows computers. As for his customers, seems he only needs to direct them how to turn on the DHCP part of the router.

A better approach might have been to use the same IP as the gateway except for the last number in the IP address, and then change the subnet to avoid duplicating any other system like Linux or Apple computers already on the LAN with static IP addresses.

What's wrong nowadays with them checking the router and seeing what's available to use for a static IP instead?