Airport extreme DHCP IP address issue

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jhawk2002 Author

Level 1

0 points

Airport extreme DHCP IP address issue

Hello All... I seem to be having an issue with my Airport extreme. My macbook as well as my wife's are connected to the Airport. We seem to be both having this issue. The problem is with DHCP assigning an ip address of 169.254.111.112. Usually, the DHCP ip address for Airport will be 10.0.1.???, am i not correct? When I am assigned the 169 ip address, Airport's connection time does not show up next to the wifi meter on the toolbar. So I have to open up System Pref's and switch to manual DHCP and manually assign the 10.0.1.??? ip address. Usually after that my internet connection reappears and everything is back to normal. It just ***** because whenever I take my macbook outside I have to switch back to auto DHCP and switch back to manual when I connect to my home network. I have already reset Airport and reinstalled the firmware and am short on ideas now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Jerry

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 11:10 PM

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Answer 1

bobshta

Level 1

4 points

Apr 2, 2009 5:37 AM in response to jhawk2002

I had a very similar problem.
Mine is recurring, and specific to my Macbook, but resetting the PRAM seems to fix it for a few weeks or months;
Restart holding Command + Option + P + R, wait until you hear the second chime (when the computer restarts on it will chime once, then chime again, as if it has been restarted again almost straight after the first one.) After hearing the second chime, let go of the keys.
You may lose some preferences doing this.

Ollie

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Answer 2

jhawk2002 Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 2, 2009 6:37 AM in response to bobshta

I'm not saying that your solution is not a good one but the macbooks (aluminum) I just bought for my wife and I are literally days old... straight from Apple. I had a macbook pro(2004) that did this quite often as did my wife's white macbook. Which leads me to believe this shouldn't be a problem with my macbook since it occurs with several other macbooks. I'm thinking its most likely the Airport, which has been about 8-9 months since purchase. Should I take it back to Apple and get a new Airport?

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Answer 3

bobshta

Level 1

4 points

Apr 2, 2009 6:46 AM in response to jhawk2002

If you purchased the computers that recently you should be covered for over the phone tech support. This might be the most efficient way to solve the problem.

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Answer 4

jhawk2002 Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 2, 2009 7:36 AM in response to bobshta

Thanks a bunch... for all your help.

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Answer 5

Apr 3, 2009 3:08 PM in response to jhawk2002

169.254.x.x is a self-assigned IP address. This happens when the DHCP negotiation between your computer and the Airport fails, and the laptop assigns itself an IP instead. The fact that you can do "Manual DHCP" succesfully tells me that the problem is with the DHCP setup on the ABS. Be sure to check that you have "Share a Public IP address" selected in the Airport's Internet Connection tab, and that you have provided a DHCP Beginning and Ending Address in the DHCP tab under Internet.

If all of that is selected, make sure that you don't have MAC Address Access Control enabled and incorrectly configured (under Airport -> Access), that you are using a Wireless Security type that your laptops can use. You may also want to try plugging into one of the Ethernet ports in the ABS and seeing if a direct connection from your laptop to the base station can get you to the internet.

Hope that helps.

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Answer 6

Jun 26, 2009 3:22 PM in response to Michael Carter

Seems like the DHCP server on my Airport Extreme Basestation "freezes" more times a day (the 802.11n model with 100Mbit Ethernet switch). Even Macs connected via Ethernet doesn't get their IPs and using a self-assigned IP instead. The only way how to get DHCP back to work is restarting the Basestation.
DHCP reservation for all my Macs doesn't help either. DHCP beginning and ending addresses are set. MAC address access control is set correctly.

Other sites, using a manual DHCP address works.

This behavior begun with the firmware 7.4.1 and 7.4.2 makes it even worse. Rolling firmware back to version 7.3.2 or 7.3.1 and restoring the default settings didn't help.

Somebody experiencing such behavior as well?

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