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Having trouble connecting to our Wifi? This may help!


"DHCP LEASE"

Your computer acquires our roaming or wireless IP address by contacting the DHCP server, which supplies a "lease" on that IP address that is good for a specific amount of time. Our provider, Comcast, sets leases for one week and they do not allow us to change it.

Your computer may not realize that it needs a different IP address. It may have plenty of time left on its original DHCP lease and keeps trying to use that old IP address, which is no longer valid, probably because another person has it.

Recent laptops (especially Macs) are generally very good about noticing when they are connected or disconnected from a wired network, or when they are put to sleep and re-awakened while using wireless. In those cases, they automatically contact the DHCP server to verify or get a new IP address.

But not all computers work that well. If you move your properly registered and configured computer to another network (or another wireless zone) and it does not work on that network, you need to force it to contact the DHCP server again. This is called "renewing your DHCP lease."

HOW TO RENEW YOUR DHCP LEASE

Windows 2000, XP, or Vista

  1. Open a command prompt window by selecting Run from the Start menu, then type in cmd and press the RETURN key).
  2. In the command prompt window, type this command (don't forget to press the ENTER or RETURN key): ipconfig /release
  3. Type this command (and press the RETURN key): ipconfig /renew
  4. Close the command prompt window.

Mac OS X

  1. Open the Network System Preference Pane.
  2. In the Show: drop-down menu, make sure that the connection method you are using is selected, for example, Built-in Ethernet for normal wired connections, or Airport for wireless.
  3. Make sure the TCP/IP tab is selected.
  4. The Configure IPv4: drop-down menu should be set to Using DHCP. Fix it if needed.
  5. In Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3, there will now be a Renew DHCP Lease button below and to the right of the Configure IPv4: drop-down menu. Click on that button.
  6. Older versions of Mac OS X may not have the Renew DHCP Lease button. They may also have the name Configure: for the drop-down menu. For these older versions, click on the Apply Now button on the bottom of the page. If that button is not available (grayed out), then first reset the Configure: drop-down menu to the Manually option and then back again to Using DHCP. The Apply Now button should now be available. Click it.
  7. After a few seconds, a new IP address should appear.
  8. Close the Network System Preference Pane.