Rockwell Software BOOTP/DHCD Server Problem

I have tried running the Rockwell Software BOOTP server V2.3.2.0 on a Toshiba Satelite Loptop running XP upgraded to XP Pro SP2. I have done the COM / DCOM and Firewall steps as recommended.

The boot requests never make it to the server. When I take the same piece of software and put it on an NT notebook, it works instantly.

Rockwell and all the "experts" gave up a long time ago. After about 6 weeks, I gave up also.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,

Bob A.

I've run free BootP servers to configure PLCs. Many programs that are DHCP servers also support the old BootP. This would probably be much simpler than getting the Rockwell version to work if tech support couldn't help you.

Is there something special that the Rockwell version does?

Bob A. said:

I have tried running the Rockwell Software BOOTP server V2.3.2.0 on a Toshiba Satelite Loptop running XP upgraded to XP Pro SP2. I have done the COM / DCOM and Firewall steps as recommended.

The boot requests never make it to the server. When I take the same piece of software and put it on an NT notebook, it works instantly.

Rockwell and all the "experts" gave up a long time ago. After about 6 weeks, I gave up also.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,

Bob A.

Click to expand...

The RA utility isn't brand or product specific; it will serve BOOTP/DHCP requests from PCs, and routers, and printers.... anything.

An interesting diagnostic would be to run the freeware Wireshark Ethernet analyzer and look for the incoming BOOTP requests. If they make it past the firewall(s), they'll show up in Wireshark for sure.

Of course you could try another BOOTP server, but that's going to tell you results, not reasons.

I had an identical problem just yesterday with a Dell D630. I had two other machines that could see the BootP requests but this one Dell would never register any of the requests.

We tried all sorts of different things and I can't guarantee that this was what fixed the problem, but in our case we had two VPN utilities running as services. We shut down those utilities and a couple moments later, that machine "woke up" to the requests.

OG

Trying a different BootP/DHCP server would be a useful troubleshooting step to see if something is blocking the broadcast requests. You could also use a packet sniffer like Ethereal.

Hi Nate,

I actually bought an inexpensive one off the internet and it did the same thing. When I took the Rocksoft piece to an NT laptop, it worked in a blink and was done.

I think that my problem is with my XP install and Microsoft wanted me to dump it and start over with a clean install of XP Pro. Since I have so much automation stuff on there already that is working, I have not undertaken the job of starting over with it yet.

It is so very frustrating that I cannot get around something as simple as seeing a BOOTP multicast with XP.

Lately I have been working on the installation of a new FactoryLink application and I have been up to my neck in COM / DCOM issues in a domain envoironment. After a few weeks, I have finally gotten the server and the remote viewnodes to talk.

I have been looking for Windows 2000 licenses. If I had my way, that is as far as I would go. For automation work, I would love to see someone create a dedicated OS. Putting up with Windows in an automation system is the low spot of my life!

Best Regards,

Bob A.

OG,

There is no VPN on this machine and the firewall is OFF. Rockwell had a routine to preset some other things that I have since forgotten, but none of it worked.

I'm sure that it is my install of XP, but I don't know enough about the OS to figure out where it is in trouble. That is why I like PLCs, I can get them to work correctly!

Thanks,

Bob A.

Hey Nate,

If the packet sniffer saw the BOOTP request, then what is the proper conclusion to be drawn? We know that it made it past the physical layer and through the NIC card, which I believe is a pretty safe bet, I think. It seems likely to me that my problem is above that, but I have no idea where to search. If the packet sniffer saw the request, do we then conclude that it is the BOOTP software ? But the software works in NT and another BOOTP server did not work either, so this is the wrong course. I'm guessing that there must be something besides the firewall blocking passage of the request. Any other thoughts ?
I don't have any BOOTP devices to play with right now but I would like to fix the problem.

Thanks,

Bob A.

That sounds really screwy. What program did you end up getting? Do you have any other "firewall-ish programs" installed? Any chance that some other application is listening over port 67? Please verify the port that the UDP request came from. You should have seen all 0s as the source address and all 255s as the destination.

What all do you have listed under "Network Connections" in the Control Panel?

Looks like the Rockwell app isn't the problem. I would have downloaded an evaluation prior to purchasing, but that's water under the bridge now.

Nate,

This PC is as close to stock as possible and is dedicated to automation work. There is no e-mail, no firewall, no antivirus, no antispyware and an absolute minimum exposure to the Internet.

As for the BOOTP software, I tried a second shareware piece that cost a few dollars and it did not work on this machine either.

In order to do the checks that you suggested above, is the Ethereal software going to provide those answers ? The only sniffer that I ever used was the Microsoft Network Monitor from back in the NT days (early 90s).

Win2k can still be purchased:

http://www.nextag.com/Operating-Systems--zzbuy+windows+2000z300474zB6z5---html

Bob - at some point (sounds like now) you'll probably want to write it off as a failed Windows installation, pixies, anti-neutrinos in the atmosphere, whatever. My point is that you have a software package that is known to work on your network on another PC. Something about that Windows box is screwing it up. I wouldn't go too crazy with it since it's a configured production machine. You've gone through all the easy ones that I can think of. You don't want to break things that are working in your troubleshooting efforts.

I wouldn't worry about the packet sniffing since it works on another computer on the network. Does this computer exhibit any other strange behavior?

Bob A. said:

Nate,

This PC is as close to stock as possible and is dedicated to automation work. There is no e-mail, no firewall, no antivirus, no antispyware and an absolute minimum exposure to the Internet.

As for the BOOTP software, I tried a second shareware piece that cost a few dollars and it did not work on this machine either.

In order to do the checks that you suggested above, is the Ethereal software going to provide those answers ? The only sniffer that I ever used was the Microsoft Network Monitor from back in the NT days (early 90s).

Click to expand...

I had a trouble with Rockwell RSLinx that I fixed with EtherReal.It was the only way to fix.
Problem was Wrong IP Address were sent in the frames by the PC to the devices.
The PC had a virtual machine software installed to run another OS and RSLinx did took the IP Address of the VMware instead the real card IP Address.
The software received the frames from the device but could do not send to the device..
May be a way to investigate with Ethereal

Nate,
This machine has had an issue previously in that RSView Studio stopped booting up correctly. I had been using Nero 6 Audio / Vidio software early on and when the Nero 7 upgrade became available, I did an upgrade. It overwrote some DLLs that RSView Studio did not care for and it never worked again.

I had to do the reinstall from scratch which is very time consuming. That is when I stopped doing anything on that machine except automation stuff.

If it was anything more compelling than a BOOTP application, I would have had to dig into it, but at this point, I am keeping an old NT box around to do the BOOTP stuff. As much as anything, I am just aggravated that I have not figured out how to make it go away.

In 30 some years of PLC / PC work, this is the first thing that I never solved. I guess it boils down to an ego thing !

Thanks much,

Bob A.

Alan,

All my AB / Rockwell budddies use VMWare and they are always telling me how great it is. I have spent some time looking into it, but I am not eager to mess this machine up again so I have held off making the jump. From your post, it sound as though it may not be as clean as they let on!

Thanks Much,

Bob A.