I have three computers on a home LAN that share an Internet connection from a standard Linksys 5 Port Workgroup switch. Two systems are running Windows 2000 and the other is Windows XP. I have had this exact same setup for nearly two years with no problems whatsoever. Last week I shut them all down when when I went out of town, and when I turned them back on, all three computers still had Internet access, but one of the Windows 2000 systems had stopped communicating with the rest of the network. The other Win2k machine and the XP machine were talking to each other just fine, but then I restarted them both and now neither of them can talk to any other computers on the network and both have no Internet connection. TCP/IP is configured to obtain IP address, subnet mask and default gateway automatically, but instead of being assigned the correct info by my service provider, the system assigns the default 192.168.xx.xx ip address, and if I try to release/renew with ipconfig, it tells me that it cannot contact the DHCP server. If I uninstall TCP/IP and reinstall it on each system, Internet service returns, but still none of the systems are visible to any other computers on the network. However, reinstalling TCP/IP is only a quick fix, as it eventually stops working altogether and must be reinstalled again. Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? I should also mention that, when I reinstall TCP/IP and the connection starts to work again, ipconfig shows me that the auto-assigned IP address, subnet mask and default gateway are vastly different from the one Windows 2000 machine that hasn't had an interruption in service. Before this started happening, all three systems were assigned similar addresses. Someone please help me! I'm abaout to rip my eyes out...

router is DHCP server yes??? well wot ever, i think the problem will be with the DHCP server, look into the lease times... Jaymc.co.nr

Jamie-- I'm assuming that the router is the DHCP server, but I don't know enough about it to tell you one way or the other. My setup is as follows: Cable Modem connects to Linksys 5 Port Workgroup Switch via Uplink Port. Computer #1 (Windows 2000) connects to Port 2, Computer #2 (Windows 2000) connects to Port 3, and Computer #3 (Windows XP) connect to port 4. Dynamic IP address that is assigned automatically by service provider. How would I go about looking into the lease times? Also, when I tried to connect Computer #2 to the port that #1 is connected to, it still had the same problem as before.