Known issue with Microsoft Vista on the hotWire network

DHCP Issue in Microsoft Vista

An issue with Microsoft Vista's handling of DHCP has been identified, and is described below. This is currently affecting some hotWire users and we created the following solution.

If you feel comfortable editing your registry, you can use the information below to resolve this problem. Do NOT make any changes to your registry if you are not familiar with how to do so. onShore disavows any responsibility for problems caused by customers editing their Windows registry.

1. Download this batch file by right clicking and selecting "Save Link As".

2. Select "Browse Folders" to verify the location this file will be downloaded to.

3. Select "Desktop" on the left sidebar.

4. Click "Save".

5. Locate the "vista" file on your desktop. Right click "vista" and select "Run as administrator".

6. Select "Continue" at the Vista "User Account Control" window.

7. A command prompt will open and ask you multiple questions.

8. Type "yes" and press enter for every question you receive. You will see exactly what files are being changed in your registry. You will be alerted if the command ran successfully or not. Success would state "The operation completed successfully". Once you are finished press "any key to continue" and the command prompt will close.

9. Reboot your computer.

10. Wait about five minutes after the computer reboots. It will take Vista a few minutes to fully identify the new network. Vista will pop up a window asking you to "Set Network Location", choose "Home". Wait a few additional minutes and you should be on line. This fix is permanent and only needs to be applied once.

The following information comes from Microsoft:

Use of BROADCAST (B) flag in dhcp...

DHCP server or relay agent sending or relaying a DHCP message directly to a DHCP client should examine the BROADCAST bit in the ’flags’ field. If this bit is set to 1, the DHCP message SHOULD be sent as an IP broadcast using an IP broadcast address as the IP destination address and the link-layer broadcast address as the link-layer destination address. If the BROADCAST bit is cleared to 0, the message SHOULD be sent as an IP unicast to the IP address specified in the ’yiaddr’ field and the link-layer address specified in the ’chaddr’ field.

By default, Windows Vista will start with BROADCAST(B) flag set to 1 which means DHCP Server or realy agent has to sent reply to broadcast address. User can change this setting by defining REG_DWORD value DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID} registry key.

Thanks,

Govind K Saoji

SDE | Microsoft DHCP Team