If a new network-board is installed and
configured, Windows98 installs as default protocol TCP/IP, configured to automatically
obtain an IP-address:
If you do NOT specify yourself the IP-address or you have a
DHCP-server on your network, Windows98
will take longer (a lot longer)
to boot, but it did assign an IP-address to the
network-card, as can be verified with "winipcfg":
TCP/IP IP AUTOCONFIGURATION
==================================================
The Windows 98 TCP/IP stack supports a new mechanism for
automatic
address assignment of IP addresses for simple LAN-based
network
configurations. IP Autoconfiguration Addressing is an extension
of
dynamic IP address assignment for LAN adapters. It enables
configuration of IP addresses without using static IP address
assignment or installing a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHCP) server.
If a network LAN adapter is configured for TCP/IP, and if
"Obtain
an IP address automatically" is selected on the IP Address
tab in
the TCP/IP Properties dialog box, Windows 98 TCP/IP attempts
to find
and use a DHCP service on the attached network to obtain
a
dynamically assigned IP address. If it does not find a DHCP
service,
Windows 98 uses IP Autoconfiguration Addressing by assigning
the
adapter an Class B IP address out of the network number
169.254.x.x
IP address space. In this way, two PCs can be plugged into
a LAN hub
and can start without any IP address configuration, and
can use
TCP/IP networking for internetworking. Each computer that
uses IP
Autoconfiguration Addressing gets an IP address and tests
to
determine that the IP address is unique and not already
in use on the
LAN.
IP Autoconfiguration Addressing is enabled by default. IP
Autoconfiguration Addressing can be controlled by setting
the value
of IPAutoconfigurationEnabled (type DWORD) in the registry
key
If the value of IPAutoconfigurationEnabled is nonzero or
if the
registry key is absent, IP Autoconfiguration Addressing
is enabled.
An IPAutoconfigurationEnabled value of 0 disables the IP
Autoconfiguration Addressing feature.
If Windows 98 initially does not detect a DHCP service and
configures
an IP Autoconfiguration IP address, and then it subsequently
discovers a DHCP service on the network, Windows 98 uses
the DHCP
service and switches from 169.254.x.x addressing to IP addresses
assigned by a DHCP server.
I do not know (or did find anywhere info)
on how Windows98
assigns the TCP/IP-address.
I verified also the procedures listed in the article Q188480
and
the file "mtsutils.txt" on switching off/on this IP-AutoConfiguration,
the required install-files "ipac_off.inf" and "ipac_on.inf"
are also on the Windows98 CD-ROM:
