Alan,
I understand your message. I'm working on the installation of a new server that has two NIC cards and I have seen some of these issues also. DHCP seems to accept the first card to register as the only one that counts. However, for some reason, the server thinks that it should use both NICs. The result has been that some transactions of the server are "official" through the registered NIC, and some are "unofficial" through the unregistered NIC which sometimes leads to lost communication.
Right now, I have one disconnected and that tamed the problem until I learn enough to fix the system configuration.
In the case of my BOOTP problem, I have a small system with a private Ethernet on a small switch. There is a single CompactLogix PLC, a PanelView Plus MMI, a PowerFlex 40 Drive and Three PowerFlex 700 Drives. And of course, my laptop when I am there.
Each time that I added something, I needed BOOTP and each time I attempted to get the Rockwell piece to work. After all it really is not that complex, I have been doing this for close to 40 years.
When I open the BOOTP server, it never get any requests. I tried a second BOOTP server that I peuchased for a few dollars of the net and it did the same thing. I then took the Rockwell piece and installed it on an old NT notebook and in a blink it is done. Just like we precticed, the request comes in and the IP stuff goes out. You turn off the BOOTP function in the new device and the IP address is permenent.
Thanks and Best Regards,
Bob A.