Duplicate Address Errors When Using Synoptics Hubs and DHCP

You may experience duplicate name errors and have problems obtaining IP addresses from Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers if you have Synoptics hubs on the network.

Synoptics hubs can be configured to use BOOTP to communicate configuration information. The BOOTP broadcasts made by the hubs and the server used to configure the hubs interfere with Windows NT DHCP. These hubs can lease IP addresses from the DHCP server causing duplicate name errors and preventing clients from obtaining addresses. The event log on the DHCP server may also show the following error:

If a Synoptics hub is causing the error, the MAC address in the above error will be unusually long, for example:

The MAC address in the error message above usually contains 22 digits, not 26 digits. For example, if you have 0018399D0100AA00A3F079, the first four hexadecimal numbers are the subnet address that the DHCP packet originates on. When you convert "00 18 39 9d" to decimal and invert it, the result is 157.57.24.0. The last twelve digits are the MAC address (00AA00A3F079).

To work around this problem, disable the BOOTP functionality on the Synoptics hubs and configuration servers and use the TFTP functionality instead.

To correct this problem, contact Bay Networks Technical Support at (800) 252-6926 to obtain a firmware fix.