Let me explain: When you remove an Ethernet cable from the laptop that is connected to one network (we'll say the internal corporate network), what should happen is that the Ethernet card should "release" the current IP address, and when it connects to,
say, a different Ethernet connection that is, per say, an outside connection, it should be "renewing" a new IP address. The problem is, no matter which connection it takes (whether on the corporate network or outside network, or vice versa), the laptop will
not automatically release and renew the previous connection's IP address.
What I have done: Right now, the only way to get the machine to release and renew another IP address is to use the command prompt and use "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew". Originally, we thought it was due to the Cisco VPN client that was causing
the problem. However, we have since removed the client, and it's still causing the issue. We've also tried changing pretty much every setting in the Ethernet adapter, and while some changes were able to release/renew the address, it was only because the
Ethernet device had to reset it's configuration. Trying to switch connections still proved to be difficult.
Uninstalling/reinstalling the Ethernet device was also attempted, but that didn't help either. And just in case anyone offered to point out that one of our Ethernet connections is bad, we've already tested this on a working laptop, and it worked fine.
So, I guess my question is, does anyone else have any other ideas of where I can look to, short of reimaging the machine again? Thanks!