We have training rooms where normally Windows XP is installed (via PXE). The "normal" DNS/DHCP infrastructure are Windows-Servers. The training room has its own VLAN (different from the Windows servers), so there is most propably an IP helper for DHCP requests active on the Cisco router where all PCs from that room are connected to.

Now we wanted to convert some of the PCs to Linux instead. The idea was: Put our own Laptop with a DHCP server into the VLAN of the room and override the "normal" DHCP response. The idea was that this should work, since a directly attached DHCP server in that VLAN should have a faster response-time than the "normal" DHCP server located some hops away from that VLAN.

It turned out that this did not work. We had to manually release the lease on the original DHCP server to get it working.

On the Laptop we did see the client requesting the IP and "our" dhcp was sending NACKs to the Windows IP request, before that we did offer our own response.

Old Question: Why did this not work out as expected? What is making the PC regain its old lease?

Update 2012-08-08:

The regain-issue has been explained in the DHCP-RFC. Now this explains why the PC regains its old lease.

Now we do release the IP from the Windows-DHCP-server before giving it another try.

Again - the Windows-DHCP-server wins.

I suspect that there is some algorithm for the dhcp-client which determines the "best" dhcp-answer for the client. The new question is:

How does the client choose the "best" answer?