Self-assigned IP address

Question

I sometimes have problems dropping IP addresses after changing networks and get stuck with a self-assigned IP that I cannot drop by hitting the renew "DHCP Lease" button on my Mac OS X.5 Leopard. The only work around is to manually give myself a "good" IP, shut down my computer, then boot up and switch back to regular DHCP. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Somtimes issues like these can arise from malformed network preferences. Try deleting (or just moving/renaming) these files:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Answer 2

Here's some fairly unpleasant instructions from apple http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1920

Answer 3

Here's a rather amazing one that just solved this for me (after trying EVERYTHING else)

Conntecting using the plain WEP password was allowing me to connect (to a linksys wifi) but DHCP didn't work and I got the dreaded self-assigned email address.

To fix it we logged in using the HEX version of the same key (which we found by looking on the router via a wired connection).

On network preferences, select Network Name [Join Other Network...] then type in the name of your own network, select WEP...HEX. and enter the HEX version of the WEP key.

Good luck. And I'd love to know how the hell that fixed it!