Re: Cannot bind DHCP address from ISP

["Alex Lee" <AlexLee@charter.net>]

I was trying to configure 'minicom' on a OpenBSD 3.0 box, got stuck and had to
power-cycle to re-boot. The ext_if network card 'xl0' which was config with
'dhcp' in the hostname.xl0 file could not bind an DHCP ip address from the
ISP. I could see message like 'DHCPREQUEST on xl0 to 255.255.255.255  port 67'
and 'DCPACK from aaaa.bbbb.cccc.dddd'. But it kept sending 'DHCPREQUEST .....'
until time-out.

I switched to my original linux firewall and connected it to the cable modem
to see if it was the ISP's DHCP server problem. It was not. The linux box
picked up an ip address as it boot-up.

Repeated several times and the result were always the same. The OpenBSD could
not bind an ip address from the ISP even though there were 'DCPACK' responses
from the ISP's DHCP server.

As a test, I plugged the OpenBSD ext_if network card into the hub which
connected the linux box. Well, it picked up an ip address from the linux box
with no problem !

I tried many different methods on the OpenBSD but always arrived at the same
result -- it failed to bind an ip address from the ISP and yet had no problem
to pickup an ip address assigned by the linux box.

Anyone shed some light and help me out before I re-build the OpenBSD as a last
resort. Thanks.