DHCPDISCOVER: no free leases Networking Origin: Network OSI layer 7 · Application Last updated 5 Nov 2026

Networking: dhcpd: DHCPDISCOVER from aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff via eth0: network 192.168.1.0/24: no free leases

The DHCP server has no unused addresses left in the scope.

Exact message you may see no free leasesDHCPDISCOVER no free leasesdhcpd: network no free leasesDHCP pool exhaustedDHCP address pool full
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Seen on: Linux Networking

Meaning

Increase the pool or shorten the lease time (guests and phones fill small pools), remove stale reservations, find devices flooding with random MACs, and check for a DHCP-starvation attack. Reduce lease time from days to hours on guest networks.

Common causes

  • Pool too small for the number of devices
  • Very long lease times on a busy network
  • Many stale leases or random-MAC devices
  • DHCP starvation attack
  • Static devices inside the dynamic range

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Enlarge the range or use a bigger subnet
  2. Shorten lease times
  3. Clear stale leases and enable DHCP snooping/limits

Detailed fix by platform

Linux

  1. bash
    sudo journalctl -u isc-dhcp-server | grep "no free leases"
sudo dhcp-lease-list | wc -l

How to diagnose

  1. Free leases — None?
  2. Lease time — Too long?
  3. Clients — Unexpected spike?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

Where this error sits

Origin: Network. Errors that are often confused with or caused by this one (click to open):

169.254.x.x self-assigned IP (DHCP failed) — Networking: IPv4 address 169.254.x.x (Autoconfiguration / APIPA) — the PC couldn't get an address from DHCP (Networking)169.254.x.x self-assi…arp -a shows (incomplete) — Networking: `arp -n` shows (incomplete) / Destination Host Unreachable — no ARP reply from the next hop (Networking)arp -a shows (incompl…Cannot assign requested address (EADDRNOTAVAIL) — Networking: connect: Cannot assign requested address — ephemeral port range exhausted by TIME_WAIT connections (Networking)Cannot assign request…DHCPDISCOVER ... No DHCPOFFERS received — Networking: dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 ... No DHCPOFFERS received. No working leases in persistent database - sleeping. (Networking)DHCPDISCOVER ... No D…Port forwarding not working (CGNAT / double NAT) — Networking: Port forwarding configured but the port stays closed — carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) or double NAT (Networking)Port forwarding not w…Rogue DHCP server hands out wrong gateway/DNS — Networking: Clients receive the wrong default gateway or DNS server — a rogue DHCP server (often a home router) answers first (Networking)Rogue DHCP server han…Windows has detected an IP address conflict — Networking: Windows has detected an IP address conflict / Duplicate address detected by 00:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee (Networking)Windows has detected …DHCPDISCO…

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