As tooki says, the network individual was feeding you a "crock". One client's differences CANNOT require all the other clients on a network to require changes. Yet another example of "I don't understand, but I'll snow you to make you go away so I don't have to admit I don't understand." Sheesh!
Tooki's link to the KnowledgeBase was my personal thought, though I couldn't remember the term for Cisco's authentication scheme.
As for not getting an address from the DHCP server every time, it could be something as simple as a default timeout in your Mac's settings that isn't long enough for their (possibly slow) server.
Remember, "Non illegitimati carborundum!" If it's working for you with 10.2.1, then great-don't even bother with the network office again. Tooki, is it possible to adjust the timeout for waiting for a DHCP server response in any MacOS?
Tooki's link to the KnowledgeBase was my personal thought, though I couldn't remember the term for Cisco's authentication scheme.
As for not getting an address from the DHCP server every time, it could be something as simple as a default timeout in your Mac's settings that isn't long enough for their (possibly slow) server.
Remember, "Non illegitimati carborundum!" If it's working for you with 10.2.1, then great-don't even bother with the network office again. Tooki, is it possible to adjust the timeout for waiting for a DHCP server response in any MacOS?