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I have been seeing this a lot at work and at home. At home, a single device will not obtain an IP from the DHCP so it self assigns an IP in the 169.xxx.xxx.xxx range. If I put in a static IP it works most of the time. I only have that issue with that specific laptop at home. ANYWHERE else it works fine.

I have also seen this a work with Windows 8 surface tablets. I can connect a students surface to our open network but not any of the 4 secure networks we have set up.

In both situations I have tried 'ipconfig /release' and 'ipconfig /renew' Release tells me that it can be performed because no media is connected and renew just sits there and doesn't renew the IP at all.

Timm G
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  • Wired or wireless? also you say "secured" word networks. perhaps they prevent outside laptops? two totally different networks, two totally different issues. – Keltari Sep 11 '13 at 14:48
  • look at Zero-conf, Bonjour, and AVAHI for an explanation of these addresses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_%28software%29 – Frank Thomas Sep 11 '13 at 14:49

2 Answers2

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My guess is that there is no DHCP server on those secured networks, or they are being filtered some other way. Most likely with mac addresses.

If you're talking about why the address is going to 169.xx.xx.xx then it's because the computers attempts to talk to a DHCP server or a default gateway.

PsychoData
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In both situations I have tried 'ipconfig /release' and 'ipconfig /renew' Release tells me that it can be performed because no media is connected and renew just sits there and doesn't renew the IP at all.

Make sure you don't have any network-level security software such as Comodo or similar interfering with your local network adapter's traffic. Uninstall any anti-virus or security software to test.

If this laptop is a Windows 8 system and you are using a wireless connection, try removing your current WLAN drivers from Device Manager, and then look for the Windows 7 version of your wireless drivers, and install those. Or you may try to update your wireless drivers. Some Windows 8 wireless drivers have issues with Cisco wireless access points - We've had a similar situation here at my workplace where Windows 8 systems can connect to the open guest wireless but not our WPA2 PSK protected WLAN - but installing the Windows 7 drivers made it work again. Of course you are SOL on the Surface RT.

LawrenceC
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