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I've recently noticed that my android phone (droid dna, although the thunderbolt that I had before did the same exact thing) is rapidly requesting dhcp info my dhcp server (isc-dhcp-server on debian squeeze). I had initially just thought it was the thunderbolt that was doing it, although I had recently noticed that the droid dna was doing the same thing. These 2 phones are the only things on the network that do this (only android phones afaik), nothing else ever does this. Right now the setup consists of the server which handles routing, dhcp, etc, which then connects to a 24 port switch (tplink, un-managed) which then goes to any ethernet connections and 2 linksys e4200 wireless routers as well (in bridge/ap mode). This happens every time the phone connects to the network. This also happens on a different network as well, which has dchp3-server, a dell powerconnect 8 port un-managed switch and a tplink 1043nd wireless router in access point mode. Here is a screenshot of the log activity itself:

enter image description here

My config file for the isc-dhcp-server consists of the following:

option domain-name "kingston.org";

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
max-lease-time 909200;
default-lease-time 604800;
#authoritative;
option routers 192.168.1.1;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.210;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
 range 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.200;
 }

host duxbury {
  hardware ethernet 00:24:8c:ea:f0:7d;
    fixed-address 192.168.1.111;
}

host lancaster {
  hardware ethernet 00:21:5e:56:aa:a4;
      fixed-address 192.168.1.160;
}

Having said all of that, would anyone be able to offer any suggestions as to what I could do to help out with this issue or prevent it? I've honestly no clue what to do at this point in time and it is very irritating, thanks for your help!

edit:

also here are the lines that show up when I start the dhcp server (did not have a "lease time" setup for a while, the network probably has 12-15 devices devices active on average):

Mar 30 17:04:00 Kingston dhcpd: Wrote 0 deleted host decls to leases file.
Mar 30 17:04:00 Kingston dhcpd: Wrote 0 new dynamic host decls to leases file.
Mar 30 17:04:00 Kingston dhcpd: Wrote 88 leases to leases file.

in addition here is the output of brctl show (I have a wifi card that is setup with hostapd, though that is not currently active as it did not provide enough coverage, the two e4200's are setup on opposite sides of the house). Also the other network setup (the one with dhcp3-server, etc) does not use a bridge

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             8000.000d9d571396       no              eth1
                                                        wlan0
lacrosse1991
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  • Can you add the first lines from that log when you start the dhcpd? The broadcast address 210 instead of 255 is wanted? Can you also add the output of `brctl show`? – ott-- Mar 30 '13 at 20:50
  • @ott-- hello, I've added the extra info near the bottom of the original post, let me know if you would like any more info – lacrosse1991 Mar 30 '13 at 21:12
  • Does it get better when you enable STP on the bridge? Is that phone the only wlan device? – ott-- Mar 30 '13 at 21:19
  • Why is `authoritative` commented out? ["So, if your DHCP server is the only one on the network, or the only one that SHOULD be on the network, or in general if you are in charge of the network to which it is attached and are therefore smart enough to not have more than one (or one failover pair) DHCP server, then you **need** to set `authoritative`."](http://www.isc.org/files/auth.html) – David Schwartz Mar 31 '13 at 01:01
  • @DavidSchwartz i had commented it out temporarily to see if it would make any difference (just in case it would for some reason) and had taken the screenshot while it was commented out, I usually have it on though – lacrosse1991 Mar 31 '13 at 02:42
  • @ott-- did not seem to make any difference unfortunately – lacrosse1991 Mar 31 '13 at 02:44

1 Answers1

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I can confirm the same issue exists with the Nexus 7 and the isc-dhcp-server. I was able to circumvent the problem to some degree by giving the device's MAC a reserved address. This doesn't help when you have guests connect to the network and they don't have a reservation, however.

Following the request/response flow with iptables logging I could see that the server was responding, but the Android devices don't like the response for some reason (not very exact, I know). It creates a very frustrating user experience when you can't keep a connection for any length of time.

For what it's worth I also found that many users have reported this issue on the Android side, but it doesn't seem to have gotten any traction from what I could tell.

ZuberFowler
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