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I have a laptop connecting wirelessly to an E4200 Linksys router. The router is configured to use DHCP with a range from #.#.#.100 to #.#.#.254. However, the laptop is being assigned an IP address of #.#.#.80 which is below the specified DHCP range. I'm not sure how this is even possible. Also, the laptop has Internet connectivity.

Out of curiosity I performed a ping -a on my laptop's assigned IP address from another client and it's showing a completely different host name.

Any ideas on why the laptop is being assigned an IP address out of the DHCP range specified in the router?

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  • 1
    could you have another dhcp server running in your subnet?
    – johnshen64
    Mar 28, 2012 at 19:28
  • Make sure you are not using a static address as well..
    – gparent
    Mar 28, 2012 at 19:31

2 Answers 2

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Look at the ipconfig /all output. What is it showing as the DHCP server. Is it coming from the router/device you expect? Perhaps you have a rogue DHCP server somewhere.

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  • 1
    Precise answer. And correct IMO.
    – Tim
    Mar 28, 2012 at 19:35
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    The problem isn't the laptop, it's the rogue DHCP server. Mar 28, 2012 at 19:36
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    You need to turn off the other DHCP server. You generally should never have two running on the same network unless you have performed special steps to setup clustering. Multiple DHCP servers on the same network causes badness.
    – Zoredache
    Mar 28, 2012 at 19:36
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    @BryanRoth you can't choose which DHCP server your clients 'point to'. DHCP is a broadcast protocol - the clients shout out asking for an IP address and if a server responds, great. As others have pointed out, you need to turn off the unwanted DHCP service. Mar 28, 2012 at 20:55
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    @BryanRoth If it's pointing to your DNS server then you know where your rogue DHCP server is :-) Mar 29, 2012 at 5:13
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Your laptop probably had previously the #.#.#.80 address from a previous connection (it was connected elsewhere, or you just reconfigured your current router). After reboot, it asked to renew the ip address to the Linksys, which have the same ip address than the previous router. The answer was lost or something gone wrong, so your laptop kept its previous address.

You have internet connectivity because both LAN have same settings (same gateway, and same DNS which is usualy the gateway).

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