I am now having problems where the airport signa disappears for a moment and as a result the self assigned ip address gets setup and my machine is hosed. This happened between reviewing an other post on this site and doing a submit.

The icon is indicating at least 3 bars on my 802.11g link. I have switched to 802.11b and an alternative base station. Neither base station is providing DHCP. That is coming from another server on the network.

This is on a network that has functioned quite happily for 6 months. The only changes have been software updates to my Powerbook.

I used to be able to roam happily across multiple wireless networks. Now I have to reboot almost every time.

kind of off topic but:
 

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www.brujula.net - using a X-lite SIP phone with plantronics headset
www.skype.com - using the same headset.

Works like a charm, and only costs $.029 per minute.

Mr. Sonora

I am still trying to make sense of this problem with self assigned ip addresses.

I have 2 networks, 1 at home and 1 at work. These networks both have separate 802.11b and 802.11g wireless routers (all are linksys WRT54Gs) set in either b or g only mode. Both networks have a separate wired firewall that is actually serving up DHCP to all the clients on the network.

I have found that I am usually able to reacquire a valid ip address if I connect manually to the 802.11b access point. If I connect to the 802.11g access point I get a self assigned ip address. This seems to be consistent on the home and office networks. Since the access points are the same linksys devices with the same firmware applied and the DHCP for the b and g connections are coming from a common server on either the home or office network it would seem that it is the 802.11g airport extreme code when operating in 802.11g mode that has a more consistent problem.

This problem seems to have emerged since the August (?) update of the airport extreme drivers.

I'm thinking it's the update...
 

New poster here, though I'm experiencing the same problems - and it looks like there are pockets of people around in the same boat. Tried a lot of things on my 12" 867mhz, but in the end, it seems my problems started with my last update of the airport software. Not thinking there is much chance of going back. Anyway, my current solution is to leave the laptop alone, and after a few minutes it seems to pick up an IP.

Alright - here's a newbie type q - how do you log into the root? I'm the "admin" for my computer - and I don't see an option for such a thing.

I tried the entire procedure and it did not fix the problem.

Apple released a new Airport Update on 15th November. I am not using an apple base station and the updates did not seem to alleviate the problem at all.

If you're using a Linksys base you may want to check and possibly upgrade the firmware on it.

I'm using the Qwest-pushed Actiontec wireless DSL router personally.

Possibly fixed it for me
 

Well, I had been having the same serious issues until the latest upgrade from apple and having turned off IPv6. But all of the sudden the problem was back. Now it seems to have been fixed simply by upgrading the firmware on my stupid linksys router!

I thought I was going to have to try reinstalling the OS from scratch!

Hopefully it stays fixed this time.

i solved self-assigned ip address problem
 

hi there,

I faced a challenge for two days looking through web forums, etc. regarding this problem. i was able to connect to the wireless router which is connected to the dsl line.

then one day this stopped working.

what worked for me, is to try assigning your own IP address, like 192.168.1.20. then, go back to assigning IP through DHCP. this seemed to have worked and had the effect of "slapping the router around to give me a valid IP through DHCP"... without having to restart the wireless router.

sorry if this is quite vague but i just needed to quickly get the word out on what worked for me, i know this is a common problem from what i see on the net forums, especially recently.

problem related to security protocols?
 

i just set up my g3 ibook with an airport card (not extreme) with a linksys 802.11b router. (latest firmware all round)

straight away i got the self-assigned problem mentioned here. except that i would reacquire a valid ip address every few minutes for 10 seconds or so, until reverting to the dreaded 169.254.x.x perhaps someone can shed light on this? (i had group key renewal set on 3600s)

this morning i traced the problem to my security settings. airport seems to like wep (only checked 128 bit) but not wpa. first time up, the only issue was that the wep passphrase was not accepted so i had to type in the full key.

For the record, when I set up my network nearly a year ago, I struggled with self-assigned IP addresses for too long, then opted for fixed IP addresses. I have had no problems since, and find that firewall configuration is very simple.

(I have a DSL modem/router feeding to my AEBS, which is distributing to one wired connection, one wireless, and a separate wireless connection for a virtual PC.

My 2 cents
 

Tried all of the above, including the pulling the airport card etc...

It got even worse when my ethernet connection was giving me the same problem. 2 evenings of grief!

What worked was getting my ethernet connection working with manual settings, and then plugging those into the Airport settings. A simple screenshot is what keep on hand for future reference.

Finally!

Ps...
 

Just for laughs, I tried the hardware reset, then using the AirPort Extreme Firmware 5.5 Updater immediately after. It worked. Now I have the "luxury" of being able to use a DHCP setting instead of a Manual setting...

Similar connection problem resolved
 

After several months of trouble-free operation, my 12" iBook/snow Airport BS seemed to have lost its connection to the outside world. I connected to the Base Station with no problem, but not to the internet. Everything seemed in order; indeed, I'd changed NO settings, yet it appeared that the iBook wasn't getting DHCP properly. I think I read about 100 posts from various places, but ended up trying a simple one first: I unplugged & replugged the router (Linksys, wired). Problem solved. Hope this helps someone before you jump through too many complicated hoops.

The problem still exists. I believe it to be something in the airport driver on the PowerBook. I have rebuilt Mac OS X and reapplied all the updates. I have also installed an Airport Extreme base station and an Airport Express using WDS and a WPA key on my home network. I still get the same problem whereby on coming out of sleep I get a self assigned ip address.

If I connect a cable to the wired ethernet port I get an ip address assigned correctly. If I then switch back to the wireless port I can't shake the self assigned ip address.

I have upgraded the firmware on the Linksys firewall that provides dhcp services. I have also upgraded the firmware on the Linksys wireless routers that are acting as 802.11b and 802.11g access points.

Given that the same powerbook can acquire a correct ip address from the same dhcp server being used by the wireless airport card this suggests that the update to the airport driver software that occurred around august/september changed the way that the card is initialised. The airport extreme successfully gets allocated an ip address every time it is started up during a reboot but does not manage to get an ip address if the card is woken from a sleep or is powered off and on again. It is as though the reloading or reinitializing of the airport stack does not go down to a low enough level in comparison to a system reboot.

Rebooting everytime I move locations or reawaken my laptop is getting very reminicent of the days of Windoze....

Spoke too soon
 

Regarding my post (#34, above),I guess I spoke too soon. Today, again, I have no wireless connection beyond the Base station. Too bad; my wife thought I was a genius for a minute there.
I tried to upgrade the firmware on the Linksys router and was unable to even do that; it just wouldn't start. I did notice that the activity lihjts on the router occasionally faded to near nothing, then came back alive slowly. This made me lose my internet connection to even my ethernet macs temporarily. But the iBook wireless connection stays kaput.
Would just love some help. My wife will think you're a genius.

Don't neglect the possibility that your Linksys box is simply malfunctioning. Borrow someone else's box and try that if you can. Or just buy a new router/basestation - they are relatively cheap now.

Latest update on the search for a reliable reconnection....

Both the Linksys (home firewall/router) and Netgear (Office firewall/router) have been updated to the latest firmware releases. This on it's own did not resolve the problem. Airport Extreme and Airport Express have been updated to the latest firmware releases (Dec 20th).

I then went through and reviewed my startup software. I have removed PocketMac Pro from my startup and now only activate it when required.

I also saw a note in another forum that mentioned the UPnP setting. There appears to be no setting in the Airport configuration for this. However both the linksys and the netgear have this setting. I have set UPnP to enabled on both the DHCP serving firewalls (Linksys and Netgear for home and office respectively). I also enabled UPnP on the wireless Linksys routers that are acting as access points.

Since doing the UPnP enabled setting I have had greater success with avoiding the self assigned ip address problem. My next step is to reinstall PocketMac Pro in to my startup and see if that causes the problem to reappear.

Mark S

Self Assigned IP address problem
 

For what it's worth I have had the same problem for a week or so. I'm on a 15" Powerbook G4, 1.25Ghz, connected via Airport to a D-Link DWL 2100AP Wireless Access Point.
For the life of me I couldn't get the Airport to connect to the internet, and kept getting that "self assigned IP address" message appearing on my Network Status.
Just a minute ago I found this thread, scrolled down and saw that bit about trashing the Airport preferences file - and what do you know? It worked!!
Fingers crossed that was the only problem and that if it happens again, I'll be bale to use the same remedy and have it work again.

I've been having this same self assigned IP problem only I connect wirelessly at my local coffee shop, so I have no control over the base station. What's strange is that some days, it's not a problem at all and other days there is absolutely no way to connect. I've also noticed that my connection is much weaker than my friends with PC laptops (I have a iBook G4). This is so frustrating? Does Mac know about these problems? Any ideas for fixes?

p.s. I have sometimes found that forcing a manually assigned IP and toggling back to the DHCP works. And other times I can just wait a minute and it will connect.