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I took my computer with me while house sitting. Now back at home, DHCP is setting an IP on the router, but I get a 169.x.x.x IP on the computer.

I've tried using a static IP but was unable to connect to the router. I've also tried different cables and ports on the router, but with no effect. Is there anything else I can try? I'm guessing the onboard NIC is not working.

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Please provide details about the environment (windows, mac, linux) and if you can an ipconfig/ifconfig readout of the adapter you are using. Even better would be a readout of tcpdump -i interface port 67 when you connect the computer to the router (this will give the handoff between the computer and the router for DHCP to see what is happening) - if you are on windows, you can get it here: microolap.com/products/network/tcpdump. – MaQleod Aug 10 '11 at 17:49
Sorry it's a windows 7 64bit box, I'm not at home so I can't give any readouts at the moment. – Michael Aug 10 '11 at 18:31

1 Answer

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As you said, I would guess this is a problem with the NIC on your computer.

I have had many computers just randomly fail and not being able to connect for random unknown reasons.

What fixes it 75% of the time for me is going in to device manager and uninstalling the device/choosing remove. I then scan for new hardware and let it reinstall, and it appears to work fine.

All I can guess is it fails due to corrupt settings stored in the registry or elsewhere.

The other 25% of the time, I was never able to fix it and I had to add a PCI NIC :(

I hope this helps you!

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That worked perfectly, thanks! – Michael Aug 13 '11 at 14:13
Apparently not, shut down the comp and now it's not working anymore. – Michael Aug 13 '11 at 18:55
@Michael, All I can say is to try the same steps again. – William Hilsum Aug 13 '11 at 19:54

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