# get rid of ip address 169.254._._ in xp



## merceda

how to get rid of the ip address 169.254._._ in windows. tried the ipconfig /release command and no luck, installed different network card and still didn't clear this address. is there any other way beside re-installing windows.....help


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## Monstrous Mi

Go to TCP/IP>Properites. Does it say "Automatically Obtain IP Address"? If it does, then every time you get on the Internet, whatever ISP you are using is assigning that address again after you /Release it.

What exactly are you trying to do?


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## coulterp

Where to start? You don't really give enough information. The IP address you are getting happens when the NIC cannot contact a DHCP server (and Windows allocates the 169.254. address as a "fix" to allow local networking.

So do you have a DHCP server (typically hardware router, or Microsoft software router ICS) on the network. 
If no ... there you are then! 
If yes then the problem could be various things (faulty NIC, faulty cable, faulty cable connectors, NIC not seated well in PC, etc, etc, etc). In the absence of further information it's hard to take it any further at the moment.


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## pinger

The reason why this is occuring is because you probably don't your NIC Cable plugged in to a router or you don't have a Static IP setup. But I agree with above not enough information to troubleshoot. Here is some stuff for you reading pleasure.

Getting a 169.x on a windows system is a feature of Automatic Private IP Addressing.

To Disable this feature in Windows XP:

To disable APIPA by editing the registry

1. You do this by adding the registry entry IPAutoconfigurationEnabled with a value of 0 (REG_DWORD data type) in the following subkey: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\interface-n ame

2. Use the registry editor Regedit.exe to add the above entry, and then restart the computer.


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## plucnik

If your sure all is working correctly (the network is up, the PC is connected to the hub etc).............I've had this problem from time to time and I've tried this first. Try entering a static IP and primary DNS (secondary not needed) in the NIC's properties and rebooting. This might "reinitialize" the NIC. After a day or so, try setting the IP properties back to automatic. I admit, it's a "work around" but it seems to work at times.


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## merceda

the system is connected to a LinkSys router, and I'm on cable modem, and windows is configured for dhcp setting, it was working fine, when I left for a while, I couldn't get back on my Internet. Tried to ping my router and didn't get any response. that's when i noticed my ip address changed to 169.254._._, and I couldn't release it. did try to put in static ip address, but I did not stay with it for more than a day. left the sytem running over a day with a dhcp setting, and still did not change. I will try set it up with a static ip for a day or so and see what happens......


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## plucnik

hmmmmmm.....Windows is the DHCP server. I assume that you have more than one PC because you have a router as well as a cable modem. I don't have cable internet so I'm guessing but does the modem have any settings? The router should have a default IP to enter it's interface. What I'm fishing for is it may be a conflict between the Windows DHCP server and maybe the router or modem doing the same thing. Now how does something like that all by itself? Who knows...I've seen crazier things. Just a idea, if it's a small home network, it's probably easier and less complicated to have the router use it's DHCP server instead of using Windows DHCP.


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## Bob Cerelli

It didn't sound like Windows was the DHCP server but rather "windows is configured for dhcp setting".

Can you simply find out the IP scheme on the other computers and manually configure everything the same except for the actual IP address.

Then, in order:

1. Ping another computer's IP address
2. Ping the router's IP address
3. Ping an external IP address - 1991.181.164.1
4. Pint an external name

And post the results.


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## merceda

my linksys is the dhcp server, and windows is set to dhcp setting. i configured my network settings to static ip. ping the other computer and it replies with no problem, didn't get any reply when tried to ping comcast.net. but i was able to ping comcast.net from other computer and replies with no problem. the machine i'm having trouble with could not release the 169.254._._ when I put the settings back to dhcp., but when i used a static ip, i could ping the router(linksys) and other computer but could not get on the internet....


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## plucnik

I don't want to step on Bob's post (he has a great web site) but .....what IP are you pinging the router with? It should be a 192.xxx.xxx.xxx on your side of the router. Post what the IP is from the LinkSys interface. You may have a bad router.


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## Bob Cerelli

Sorry for the couple of typos in my last post. 

Pinging (not pinting - too much beer) an external name should be the last thing you try. This is because unless all the others work, this last one won't. It also doesn't help determine wherer the problem might be.

For example, and why I put them in the order I did (yes there is some thought to the madness):

1. If you can't ping any local computer's IP address (and they all work ok), then you have a pretty basic problem and there is no point in going any further trying to connect to the Internet. You typically have a bad or misconfigured network card, cable or port on the hub. Start swapping with known working ones.

2. If you can ping local computers but not the router then likely either the router is configured differently for the rest of the computers or it is defective.

3. If you can't ping an external IP address, then you won't be able to ping by name. If this doesn't work then double check the gateway setting on the workstations and make sure the DSL connection is working. One way might be to directly connect a computer to the DSL/Cable modem. If this works, then the problem is likely the router is misconfigured or defective.

4. If you can ping by IP but not name, then likely DNS is not configured correctly.


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## merceda

i can ping the router when i configured the network card with static ip, i can ping the other computer that is on the same router too. but when i set my network card setting to dhcp i get 169.254._._ ip address and could not renew or release this address, so the system is not able to ping any router or other system. it's just seems like window is getting this ip address permanently when i set the network card to dhcp configuration.


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## merceda

oh by the way, my ip address for the router is 192.168._._ and this is what i used to configure for static ip....


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## merceda

I connected the computer straight to the cable modem and still can't get a new ip address and the my network card is set to dhcp. my other computer works fine with a dhcp configuration and connected to the my LinkSys router.


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## Bob Cerelli

If everything works correctly when you give it all the IP address information manually, why not just leave it that way.


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## merceda

but I can't access the Internet when I set the pc with static IP, 192.168._._, subnet, 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168._._. and DNS 192.168._._ with no secondary DNS, no WINS....I can only access my local network(other computers) but I cannot get to the Internet. It can only get to the Internet when I had on dhcp settings, but since I can't get rid of the 169.254._._ ip address, it won't renew or release when it used to. somehow windows decided to stay with this ip address when it's on dhcp configuration....


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## Squashman

And to reiterate what Bob said. Double check your DNS and Gateway settings. Whatever settings your other computers are getting from the DHCP server for the DNS and Gateway, statically set that on your machine as well.


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## Monstrous Mi

merceda said:


> my linksys is the dhcp server, and windows is set to dhcp setting. i configured my network settings to static ip. ping the other computer and it replies with no problem, didn't get any reply when tried to ping comcast.net. but i was able to ping comcast.net from other computer and replies with no problem. the machine i'm having trouble with could not release the 169.254._._ when I put the settings back to dhcp., but when i used a static ip, i could ping the router(linksys) and other computer but could not get on the internet....


You can't /RELEASE or /RENEW a static IP. You can only do that with a dynamic IP.


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## Monstrous Mi

merceda said:


> but I can't access the Internet when I set the pc with static IP, 192.168._._, subnet, 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168._._. and DNS 192.168._._ with no secondary DNS, no WINS....I can only access my local network(other computers) but I cannot get to the Internet. It can only get to the Internet when I had on dhcp settings, but since I can't get rid of the 169.254._._ ip address, it won't renew or release when it used to. somehow windows decided to stay with this ip address when it's on dhcp configuration....


I believe the reason you cannot access the Internet is because you have that DNS setting as a private address. I'm pretty sure you have no DNS server in your network.

Here are the recommended settings for most home users with an internal network and a router with Internet access. The Network TCP/IP property settings should be:

1. Obtain IP address automatically; and
2. Obtain DNS server address automatically.

Reboot and see if that solves it. Here are some typical settings and IPs you should now see:

Computer DHCP enabled: NO
Computer IP address: 192.168.1.100
Computer netmask: 255.255.255.0
Computer gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers: (blank)

Router (internal): 192.168.1.1
Router (external): 169.254._._ (which should be the IP assigned by your ISP)


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## Bob Cerelli

If the router is configured correctly, you can certainly use and interntal IP address for your DNS entry. 

What are all the IP setting for the other computers (IP address, gateway, DNS). And what were the results of the ping testing that has been repeatedly requested. This is to help you find a solution rather than keep going over what doesn't work.


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## merceda

okay, here's the configuration i get from the other computer with dhcp settings.
ip: 192.168.0._
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
dns: 192.168.0.1
sec. dns: 192.168.0.1
and that's it....i tried using the same config(on a problem pc) using static ip, except for the IP address(of course) and still can't get to the Internet....
when I ping the the outside world(like comcast.net) from the system that works on dhcp setting, I get a request reply and no problem. but when i do the same with a static ip on the sytem(with a problem)...i get timeout error.


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## merceda

i'm not trying to release or renew when my the system is to a static ip.
I use the release/renew command when I set the sytem to dhcp. but it won't release the 169.254._._.....


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## Bob Cerelli

What is the difference between the IP information on the problem computer when it is configured for DHCP as opposed to when you put in the IP information.

You can run "ipconfig /all > dhcp.txt" and "ipconfig /all > static.txt" - no quotes to get both settings redirected to text files for a better comparison.


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## Monstrous Mi

merceda said:


> dns: 192.168.0.1
> sec. dns: 192.168.0.1


These settings are wrong. The router is not a DNS server. With these settings you will never be able to access Internet web sites.

In TCP/IP properties set "Obtain DNS server address automatically".


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## Bob Cerelli

I have many sites where the router is set up for DNS and you just configure the workstations to the router's IP address. It works fine as long as the router is configured properly. This is especially useful if the ISP ever changes DNS addresses. The router gets the change and you don't need to do it manually on each computer.

Also, that is apparenly how other computers on his system are configured and they do work correctly with that internal IP address.

I would still like to get the results of trying to ping an external IP address rather than name. Then you even eliminate DNS misconfiguations as part of the problem.


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## merceda

if i set the network setting to "Obtain an IP address automatically" yes, I can choose to "Obtain DSN server address automatically" option, but when I use static IP, the option for "Obtain DNS server address automatically" is disabled......so I can't use this option. 
my biggest problem is getting rid of the 169.254._._ ip address.. how do I nuke this address without re-installing windows.....when I use the dchp configuration settings for this machine.


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## merceda

okay, i'm able to ping an external ip address(comcast.net 63.240.76.72). i get a reply back....


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## Bob Cerelli

So if you can ping by and IP address then it is a DNS issue.

How is the DNS setting different from the computers that work to the computer that doesn't.


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## Monstrous Mi

merceda said:


> when I use static IP, the option for "Obtain DNS server address automatically" is disabled......so I can't use this option.


This is true but you don't have to put anything in those fields. They should all be blank.

Then try >ping comcast.com


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## Bob Cerelli

With a static IP address, I think you have to put something in the DNS entries or it won't work at all. Just tried it and couldn't ping by name.

As soon as I entered the Internal IP address of my router, all was back to normal.


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## merceda

here's the configuration on the stystem that's running dhcp config.
ip: 192.168.0.102
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
dns: 192.168.0.1 

and this is what i use on the system (with problem) on a static ip.
ip: 192.168.0.109
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
dns: 192.168.0.1
and I still can't get to the internet: 
If i set it to DHCP, and reboot the machine, I get an ip address of 169.254.204.218...subnet 255.255.0.0 and nothing on default gateway. Tried release/renew command, nothing works....
edited my registry in "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\" and added a key DWORD_VALUE Value name: IPAutoconfigurationEnabled
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value in hexadecimal: 0 (A value of 0 disables APIPA support on this computer) 

and this still doesn't work, all I get for an ip address is 0.0.0.0 subnet 255.255.255.255 default gateway 0.0.0.0 and that's it.....I replaced the network card and installed a new one and configured it dhcp, and still get an ip address of 169.254.????????, this is [email protected]#$)@#$ frustrating...


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## Bob Cerelli

In your previous reply you said you could ping an external address. Now you can't
So what has changed?

There have also been several previous requests for different things to ping but no results have ever been posted. Again:

1. Can you ping the IP address of another computer
2. Can you ping the IP address of the router

Once these are ok.

3. Can you ping an external IP address
4. Can you ping an external name

But now these don't seem to be working so what is different from when it was.


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## merceda

i can still ping the external ip address(with static config), but still can't get to the internet with the static IP, I can't use dhcp because i keep getting 169.254._._ ip address. i can't ping the external name, but it could ping the router, external ip, the other computer (with the static ip address) and can't get to the internet.


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## Bob Cerelli

If you can ping by IP but not by Name, double check that the DNS entry is the correct and still giving problems, you might need to reinstall TCP/IP

To do this with XP,
you need to run a small script:

netsh int ip reset [ log_file_name ]

the log_file_name needs to be specified.

e.g.
netsh int ip reset ip_reset.txt


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## merceda

do i run this scrip from the command prompt?


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## Bob Cerelli

You can either run it from a cmd program or start / run / netsh int ip reset ip_reset.txt


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## Bob Cerelli

It could also be that Winsock2 is corrupted.

MS has an article to determine if this is the case and a pretty straightforward way to resolve it.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811259


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## merceda

You are right, the winsock was corrupted. I went to Microsoft for Winsock recovery and it fixed the problem. thanks a whole bunch...

you are THE NETWORKING GOD!!!!!!


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## Bob Cerelli

This doesn't happen that often but glad you got it working. The fix isn't that hard. Just figuring out which one that takes the time.


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## Harrison78

I was having exactly the same problem as the original poster of this topic but in Windows 2000 and the Winsock fix to resolve it in that link for XP worked for Windows 2000 as well.

Thanks


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## JohnWill

The WINSOCK fixes here are easier to use, and should accomplish the same thing. 

WINSOCK Fix XP: http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

WINSOCK Fix WinALL: http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm


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## stevegu

merceda said:


> how to get rid of the ip address 169.254._._ in windows. tried the ipconfig /release command and no luck, installed different network card and still didn't clear this address. is there any other way beside re-installing windows.....help


maybe first try rebooting your router (then reboot your computer) - see if the router reboot now allows you to get a correct 192.168.x.x ip address - this has almost always worked for me when i have gotten the 169.254.x.x ip assignment (even if other computers on the router have correct ip assignments and are working ok)


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## gcjnr

googled for ages and found no cure for 169 ip address through a router.fiddled with cmd/winsock, swapped cables, etc. accidentally discovered the problem was due to doing an xp repair install and not noticing my sis 900 ethernet card had reverted to an old windows driver behind my back- so i couldn't get a new ip address. updated sis card driver and whoosh-i'm back online. sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ! thanks for all this boards help :up:
one other point which might be useful. my windows is actually called windowsx on my problem second computer which i'd forgotten so C:windows commands didn't work until i typed windowsx. (i missed the backslash character there because i have a e-blue chinese/ english keyboard from maplins and i just cant find a backslash key)


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