Strange log entry

[Hakan Koseoglu]

Hi Wulfmann

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 10:11 PM, Wulfy <wulfmann at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
>> Nov 23 14:02:23 wulfy-desktop dhclient: DHCPREQUEST of **.**.***.*** on eth0 to 192.168.0.1 port 67
>> Nov 23 14:02:23 wulfy-desktop dhclient: DHCPACK of **.**.***.*** from 192.168.0.1
> The *'s are, of course, numbers and are the same in both lines.  This
> happens every couple of minutes, which generates a lot of e-mails from
> logwatch.  I'm a complete newbie at networking so have no idea even how
> to google intelligently on this subject...  :@(
>
> Can anyone tell me why my eth0 is continually asking for a DHCP? Is this
> normal? Or do I have a problem in the configuration?

When your PC is using DHCP, the IP address given to it is "leased" to
the machine for a finite period. This is usually a short period of
time. The client and server will continue using the same IP address
during the period of the lease. When the lease expires, the client
will request the IP address from the DHCP server. The DHCP server can
handle a different IP address or continue handing the IP address that
used to be leased to the client.

There is nothing wrong in this. It's all running the way it's supposed to.

In most cases the lease period is quite short, even down to a couple
of minutes. This is OK too. As long as there are plenty of unused IP
addresses, your IP address won't change. Even if it changes, this is
OK too, everything will happen completely transparent to you.

Now, in your router configuration, this might be changed - if you have
a ADSL-router it might not have this option. If you have a DHCP server
which is not on your router, this option can be changed. If you don't
know anything about network, ask your friendly network administrator.
Leases can be granted for individual PCs for longer periods - if
necessary.

There you go. Nothing to worry about. :-)

If you don't like this at all, you are free to assign a static IP
address to your laptop. You can also reserve the IP address on the
ADSL-router, this is possible for almost all routers.

Just a little warning. If you go for the static IP and NOT tell your
router about it, the router can lease that IP address to an other PC
and you will have endless networking issues. :)

-- 
Hakan (m1fcj) - http://www.hititgunesi.org