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Windows 98 TCP/IP AutoConfiguration
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":

The article Q188480 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q188/4/80.asp), which also points to the file "\tools\mtsutil\mtsutils.txt" on your Windows98 CD-ROM),
has the following explanation:
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
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System
\CurrentControlSet\Services\VXD\DHCP
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:

I had a look in the registry and located the key:

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