Self assigned IP address

Thanks Ericdy for the great solution.

I would like to add to this thread...my new 2013 Mac Book Pro laptop had the same problem. After several attempts to establish a WI-FI connection and failing, I noticed that the Mac Book was telling me...in network settings...that it had an IP address of 169.254.6.79. As it turns out, that IP address was to my wireless printer. I turned the printer off and followed Ericdy's instructions. Mac Book immediately picked-up my WI-FI network. After signing in, I locked the network then turned the printer back on.

Hope this helps someone down the road...

I had this same problem after software update 10.8.5.

After trying all the tricks mentioned one worked.

MacMini running 10.8.5

Internet via Huawei USB Dongle.

Shared via Wifi.

Wifi was assigning fixed IP address and all other devices could connectto network but no internet access.

I disabled all sharing except internet sharing.

Copied the IP address Huawei was giving.

Pasted this in the WIFI(advanced set up) TCP/IP.

Now, all devices have access to internet as well.

Disconnected internet and re-connected.

This time the IP address in Huawei is different, the WIFI shows the previous IP address but the internet is being shared properly.

HTH

Pankaj

I've had this issue for days, and finally found a dead-simple solution that I haven't seen many (any?) people talking about... a hard reset of the wireless router.

In my case, I'm using an Airport Extreme Base Station, so I followed the instructions for a hard reset here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728

Worked like a charm. After days of frustration, I'm back up and running. Hope this helps someone!

Ah thank you ever so much. Would never have occured to me to try this.

Shall definitely pass on the info to anyone who needs it.

Also, you write your comments in a very friendly and supportive manner 🙂

X

i hope this one helps..

regardless of what router u are using the "ROUTER MODE" on the router should be on DHCP-NAT

most common errors for mac users is when the airport extemes "router mode" say off. so u may need to access that and check if its on dhcp-nat

sorry for my grammar but i hope this one helps.

-@iamedwardmont

Like so many others here, my wireless stopped working out of the blue. I finally made some time to try to troubleshoot/remedy the problem - and I came across this forum. I spent hours - hours and hours - trying pretty much all of the remedies set forth in one or another post. Unfortunately, unlike so many others who have posted here, nothing I did worked. I replaced my old D-Link router with a new Airport. I was able to get the wireless functionality of that to work, and for my iPhone to connect wirelessly to the new network I created via the Airport. And I was able to get online on my Mac Power Book BUT NEVER WIRELESSLY - only via an Ethernet line that ran through from my cable modem through the Airport, then to my MPB.

Then I tried overwriting the 169 IP address, by manually putting in the IP address of my Ethernet line.

But not only did the manual IP address stil not remedy the problem - it caused my iPhone to ALSO take on a 169 IP address, and for me to no longer connect wirelessly via my iPhone.

I finally gave in and called Apple Care (800.875.2273). The first time I'd called somehow I got a message that advised that I'd have to pay $19.99 just to talk to someone, and that so irritated me that I hung up. But I gave in today - and, to my surprise, when I called back, I was NOT advised that I would have to pay to speak with someone. After about a 10-minute wait, I got a tech guy to whom I explained the situation - and made very clear that I had spent hours on the forums and could see that this was a well-known problem. To his credit, he heard me out, then stayed on hold along with me until he could get an Airport/wireless specialist on the phone. He briefly explained my problems to that specialist - sketchily, so I went over it all again.

The specialist quickly got down to business - it was EXTREMELY clear to me that the specialists are highly attuned to the problems. I tried to take notes as we were going along, to relay here. Alas, I didn't do a very good job writing down excatly what we were doing as we were doing it, so this does not set forth exactly what we did, but roughly:

- Delete my network name from the list of Networks (we did NOT delete the Wi-Fi listing in the previous screen).

- THIS IS REALLY THE KEY THING: We went to HD > System > Library > Preferences [I believe - I'm sorry I'm not 100 percent certain] and sent to the trash the ENTIRE System Configuration folder. I had not found anyone on this or any other forum advising to do this - just to delete one or two files from that folder. But this seemed to be absolutely critical to the remedy - at least for me - and is not something I myself had tried to do.

- The Apple tech guy then instructed me to turn off my MPB, and then to hold down CTRL+OPTION+SHIFT + the power button for 10 seconds. I did that - absoluely nothing happened during that time.

- We then turned WiFi on, and went through a cycle of resetting my Airport, and then also my cable modem (which involved unplugging every wire connected to the cable modem, and leaving everything unplugged from the modem for a full 2 minutes).

- I think after we did that we AGAIN reset the Airport, and I had to re-create the network all over again.

- We then turned WiFi on, and, voila, I finally, finally, finally again had wireless connectivity on my MPB - and then I was able to connect on my iPhone (the Apple tech explained that DHCH and NAT must both be enabled in order to connect on multiple devices).

I am not an IT person at all - as this post probably makes clear. As much as I appreciated all of the posts here, not one post provided the solution to my problem. All this stuff being what it is, I'm sure there's no one remedy for everyone's problems, as similar as they may be.

I pressed the Apple tech about why the problem - and he confirmed that it's likeliest to develop after a system update, which was the theory I had developed, based on all that I read here and on other forums. And, again, just to say, it was COMPLETELY clear from speaking with him that Apple is completely aware of this - and have the protocol in place to remedy it.

If you are experienced troubleshooting Apple problems, and have IIT-y skills, and this problem develops, then try sending your System Configuration folder to the Trash and try completely re-setting your cable modem and your Airport/wireless modem. If you aren't super-comfortable dealing with such stuff, then I highly recommend calling Apple and getitng connected as quickly as possible to an Airport/wireless specialist. Why I was advised I would have to pay $19.99 the first time I called, then not the second, I have no idea. I was so ready for the problem to be fixed, I was ready to pay, as irritated as I was that I was going to have to pay.

Good luck.

I had the same problem on my OS X 10.5.8.

I tried to remove the system preference folder, removing the airport and ethernet from the Network utility etc.

At the end, it was a error of the firewall. I deactivated air port -> deactivate firewall -> activate airport -> it worked! -> deactivate airport -> activate firewall with the same blocking list as before -> activate airport -> and it still worked!

Strange bug.

after reading many posts on how to fix this problem, desigurl03 solution saved the day. her solution worked great. I've reposted her solution below , but i did 2 things different.

1. after i found those 3 files i immediately deleted them.

2. before restarting mac, i went back to network preferences window and deleted all the options for me to connect to the internet which was wifi and ethenet.

after restarting i went back to network prefs clicked the "+" symbol and added just the ethernet. i then hit "apply" and after a few moments i finally had internet again.

here is her solution.

I have been having the same issue with my computer and the only time I could connect to the internet was when my Firewall was off. I was luckily still under warranty so I called apple care today and she told me these steps that fixed my problem. When you are at your desktop screen go to the tab labeled "GO" and click on Computer. Once you are there follow these steps:

1. Click on Macintosh HD

2. Click on the file labeled "Library"

3. Click on the file labeled "Preferences"

4. Click on the file labeled "SystemConfiguration"

5. Then move these three documents to the trash (don't delete them just in case but your computer should remake these documents on its own

1. com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

2. com.apple.network.identification.plist

3. NeworkInterfaces.plist

6. Then restart your computer and you should be good to go and if you are you can go ahead and delete those documents in your trash (that is what I did) because one of those documents was corrupted.

Hope this helps and let me know if it worked!

Solved!

After trying every solution I could find, without success, I did the following and am now back on-line!

In my case my iPhone could connect but my MacBook would not. My MacBook gave the "No IP address assigned" error followed by the "Self-assigned IP address...cannot connect to the internet" error.

To get around this:

1. On my iPhone I looked up the network settings (Settings > Wireless > small, blue "i" icon next to the wireless network) and noted the IP address.

2. On my MacBook I opened the System Preferences > Network > and clicked the Wi-Fi "Advanced" button.

3. Under the TCP/IP tab I selected "Using DCHP with manual addres" on the "Configure IPv4:" drop-down menu. *Note that my Subnet Mask and Router information had already been established while my computer tried to connect initally. While these values matched the ones on my phone, if I entered them all thorugh the "Configure IPv4: maunally" option I was unable to connect. Go figure?

4. I entered the IP address as shown on my iPhone, but incresed the value of the final number by one on the hunch that there would not be another device using this IP. So, for example, my iPhone's IP was 888.888.8.8 and on my computer I entered 888.888.8.9. *Note that if there was a device using this IP address, I think a dialouge box would warn you and you could just continue incresing the IP address until it wasn't an issue.

5. I clicked ok and Apply to the new Network Settings and was online!

Hope this helps.

Ok, here's some strangeness. Had a momentary power outage last night. Took down modem and router but not Macbook or monitors on UPS. Internet was gone but I figured it would be back after modem and router rebooted. I use the ethernet port for home use. Preferences said the ethernet port was self-assigned IP. I could manually specify an IP address and it would work fine. Wireless worked fine acquiring a DHCP address. On ethernet, DHCP would come up with a self-assigned IP 169. address no matter what I tried including resetting the NVRAM and SMC (and correctling monitor arrangement after that) and other things with no logical connection :-). I deleted the Ethernet network ➖and added it back(+). Same results except now a manually specified address would not work but it could tell when the cable was connected. I took the Macbook to the router and plugged it in directly with a patch cord. Bamm, back to normal with my router defined segment address assigned Next stop, ethernet switch at my home entertainment area. The TV, PS3, and Directv all working fine here but Macbook returned to self-assigned IP. Power cycled the switch. Bamm, Macbook worked fine and so I returned it to its shelf under my desk. For some weird reason, the old Linksys hub and Macbook were unhappy after the power outage even though everything else worked, all with DHCP. Also, it was weird that I could not get a manual IP connection to work after rebuilding the ethernet network in Preferences when it did immediately before. I was comtempating a restore but the risk was averted.

ericdy,

Thank you. Your solution fixed my macbook pro right up. I was getting highly annoyed as i had about 6 other devices connecting to my parents wifi network without any problems. Removing the network from memory and re-entering the pw did wonders.

Thanks again!

Hi Guys

I have tried everything and finally found out that my router was faulty. I changed my wifi router and everything works fine now. No wonder apple isn't bothered about this post. Ha! Cheers!

Hey guys,

Apparently there is a number of different issues that can cause this. My specific example was in a set-up where a DSL modem was connected into Airport Extreme that created an extended network for all kinds of devices I use at home. I got the same problem after a reboot of Airport Extreme.

The solution is to go into Airport Utility, Edit the set-up of the Airport Extreme and then go into Network tab. Turns out that after some reboots Airport Extreme goes into 'Bridge' mode of the network, which does not allow it to receive an IP address from the DSL model. No amount of Airport / Mac reboots, deleting previous wireless networks, calling ISP, screaming at your hardware, etc - none of that acutally helps. Simply change the setting to DHCP and NAT in the Network tab of the Airport Exteme settings and then ignore 'Double NAT Issue' that will be flagged by the Airport Extreme. Works in five seconds. Good luck.

V.

Everyone stop what you're doing. This is a firewall issue. To fix the problem you must delete the firewall preferences. To do that, go to the /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/ folder and remove the file called "com.apple.alf.plist," and then restart your computer. After the system boots, you may be prompted to allow incoming connections to numerous programs and services, so accept these for now (you can always go to the Firewall settings and deny or remove entries later on) and then try connecting to the network again.

I tried 3 different methods that others suggested and they didn't work. Deleting the firewall preferences worked.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20050793-263.html

There are many sources for this generic "self-assigned IP address" message. Congratulations on finding out your solution. The article was posted about three years ago so it has helped a number of people but it only solves one of the possible problems. I don't think anyone knows how the preferences file gets corrupted during a power outage but that starts it for many.