Win11 24H2 - DHCP issue - no Gateway

Question

Not 100% sure if our problem is only with Win 11 24H2, but with 23H2 the problem does not occur. It is occurring on several systems right now - both when upgrading on a notebook in a WSUS test group and when reinstalling via a USB stick. I do not have the problem on at least one notebook (also test group).

No network connection can be established on these now 5 different systems - neither via LAN nor WLAN. The error was quickly identified (the gateway is missing in the network configuration), but after rebooting the gateway is missing again. If it is added manually, everything works.

We use DHCP. Settings checked and ok. The configuration is complete, i.e. IP, mask, DNS servers are correct - only the gateway is missing. ipconfig /release or /renew do not help. Wireshark shows nothing conspicuous.

When reinstalling, the notebooks get stuck during installation at the point where a network connection is to be established (despite cable and/or correct WLAN settings). With an unattend.xml the installation goes through, but the gateway is missing.

Same problem in homelab after wiping the disk and reinstalling. I therefore rule out problems with the infrastructure.

***Moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Internet and connectivity***

Answer 1

I have a similar issue with DHCP. We use User Class ID's in order for our computers to get a gateway to help discourage users from connection personal devices. I used wireshark to inspect the DHCP traffic between a 23H2 computer and a 24H2 computer. The 24H2 computer sends out the DHCP discover request WITHOUT the user class information entirely greatly impacting our environment. This update has definitely affected DHCP processing.

Answer 2

I have found a simple 100% reproducible test case for creating at least one manifestation of this no-DHCP-/no-network … after-24H2 bug.

Context:

I have been frustrated for weeks now having some of my Win11 PCs/VMs working after 24H2 upgrade and some not. I stumbled on this specific case that exhibits the bug 100% of the time. I realize my test case is likely not something that addresses every case of DHCP failing/no-network. But maybe it’ll help point the sustaining engineers at MS in the right direction. I am not an engineer, just a smart end user. And my prior attempts at providing bug test cases to MS have failed miserably. Maybe someone on this thread has better connections into MS support and can pass this on.

Test Conditions:

VirtualBox 7.1.6

Win11_24H2_English_x64 ISO

Any previously-activated Win11 VirtualBox vdi image (to ensure VM will Activate)

SoftEther VPN Server

Test Steps:

1 Build a completely fresh Win11 VM on VBox from the ISO (configure VM network with a Bridged Adapter, but I believe NAT fails also).

2 Do just the minimal Win11 initialization steps necessary to get to a working VM.

3 Reboot to confirm network comes up normally after reboot.

4 Download and install softether-vpnserver_vpnbridge-v4.42-9798-rtm-2023.06.30-windows-x86_x64-intel.exe (from softether.org). Take all the defaults and do the post-install launch, but then exit right away. You do not need to do any config to manifest the bug.

[Prior to the next reboot, networking is apparently fully working, but the situation has been set up for failure upon the next reboot.]

5 Reboot VM.

6 Upon reboot you will see Win11 attempting to connect to a network and then displaying the no-network globe icon with “No internet access” error when hovering over the network icon.

Bug is completely reproducible. I did this process twice to confirm.

Notes:

Bug can only be reproduced with SoftEtherServerManager. The SoftEtherClientManager works just fine, as one would expect.

SoftEther Server has worked perfectly on every Windows release prior to 24H2.

SoftEther provides me secure remote access to remote family and friends locations. The bug is particularly pernicious at unattended locations: if the PC at one of those locations does an upgrade to Win11 24H2 then the network goes down and I’ve completely lost access to that location.

To prevent loss of access at those remote locations, I followed the instructions at https://www.elevenforum.com/t/specify-target-feature-update-version-in-windows-11.3811/

to keep those PCs/VMs on 23H2 until the bug is completely fixed.

Answer 3

Hello,

Based on my understanding of your issue, I suggest you open cmd as an administrator and run the following commands in sequence to reset the network to see if this problem can be solved:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /registerdns

netsh int ip reset

Best Regards

Zunhui

Answer 4

Thank you for your suggestions. I already did that in various constellations with no luck.

Just did a fresh install of 23H2 - no problems at all.

Answer 5

Hi,

If you are sure that the problem is caused by the patch, I suggest you report the incident in the Microsoft Feedback Center. Microsoft usually pays attention to user feedback and will fix it in subsequent updates.

Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

Best regards

Zunhui