iPad wont get IP address from DHCP Server

Don't get me wrong. I understand your problem and I hope you get a solution. However, there have been many people with the exact same problem and a solution has not been found.
The answer has always been 'change your router'.

There have been many many threads and posts on this subject. Just do a search and you'll see.
Some people find a solution and some don't.
People will tell you to change your router if your iPad connects to any other wi-fi network.

Sounds like the 802.1X portion of the authentication is failing. When you select the network from the scan list, are you sure you are getting the cert and the cert is valid?

Have you tried looking at the IAS system logs to see what it says about the EAP transaction?

dpjax wrote:
The iPad is the only device that hasn't worked perfectly. Its the iPad.

Maybe (and that has been said many times) but what I'm saying is that the standard response from the 'powers that be' here is that you need to change your router to be compatible with the iPad not the other way round. You've got an outdated router. It's not the fault of the iPad at all.
Whether you like that response is another matter, of course!

I have exactly the same problem. The iPad was working fine on this router for the last two weeks. Multiple other devices work fine on it. As it was working, I am certain its not a router problem, its an iPad problem. I cannot see what has changed, nothing new was added to the network in the middle of the night. The iPad is being allocated a 169 address rather than a 192 address, thus not looking outwards. I am going to try wiping the iPad and see what happens....

Did wiping the iPad work? I now have the same problem: device worked fine for months on the same router, then suddenly stopped acquiring IP address, router, DNS, etc.

Had the same problem. Solved it however by keep deleting the "169" network. Then add a known IP address, submask, etc. Seems like the OS always takes the last known wifi network from the stack ...

I had the same problem with my new iPad. Bummer. "Buy a new router" is a pretty weak response IMO. Everything else works (Windows, my NAS, iPhones, Macs, etc.) except the iPad.

I managed to get it working after manually "forgetting" the previously found SSID of my network and manually defining connection info using the Wi-fi Networks -> Choose a Network... -> Other... option

Hope it lasts.

I am seeing something similar. I have a 3G ipad and a WiFi iPad, and one can join a network with no issue, and the other one cannot. I have reset all of the network settings and restarted, but I still see the same symptoms as above (I can connect as far as being challenged for authentication, then I get no IP address.

What's more, until recently, both iPads worked fine on these networks.

I think the iPad and iPhone cache some network settings locally, based on SSID, then screws up if things change (I had to change the default gateway)due to one of the ISPs going down.

I had to rename the SSID on my WDS network. I kept the same pre-shared-key (password), then retyped the password onto all of iphones and ipads in the house. The systems now all work.

It's a pain in the 'bottom', as I have about 5 other laptops, xbox, wii, wireless cameras, etc to type in a non-trivial password.


- james

I am running into a similar problem with IPAD on DHCP server. From my understanding it is a cache problem inside IOS problem that has not been solved even on IOS 4.2.1
And once you will find the IP adress and it's MAC ADDRESS, it's unable to be registered into DHCP.

Had similar issue on IPAD 2 using latest 4.3.1 iOS

We use profiles to push out our "authorized" WiFi Settings and the same issue was happening were we would connect, but then no IP was aquired (standard 169 address was issued instead)

After much head banging found that even though SSID was predefined and accurate
"fogetting" the connection was not an option because this was applied using a "profile" removing and readding the profile gave no solution. However, after clicking on OTHER and then re-define the setting (the same that was already defined by the profile) it started to work.

After it worked we reset all network connections ( General/Reset/Reset Network Connections) after the IPAD restarted, our Profiles were still there and everything worked as it should.

Hopefully this will be helpful to the next person. DON'T Go buy a new ROUTER because of this issue. If you know your router works then the IPAD should too (as long as you using standard stuff that is...)