Airport Self-Assigned IP problem

I have a problem where my MacBook will occasionally not connect to certain wireless networks. When this happens, the Network preferences says that the AirPort is connected with a self-assigned IP. This doesn't just happen on my computer, it happens on 2 other MacBooks and 1 MacBook Pro, and there are times when 1 computer will not connect but the other 3 will.
I have tried power cycling the AirPort, renewing the DHCP lease, flashing the PRAM, creating a new network location and usually, none of these things work.
The computers are white MacBook's with OS X 10.5.8 and a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.4.11. The router is very often inaccessible as it's someone else's network, but I don't think this is the problem as only 1 computer usually has a problem.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have also experienced this problem. Here's what I learned. After executing a "Safe" restart (holding down the shift key during restart), I restarted in normal mode and was greeted with two queries. mDNSResponder needs permission to accept incoming traffic and same thing for configd. These are functions that apparently are needed to pick up an external IP address from the DHCP service. I looked at the firewall log and saw a long list of denials corresponding to when I lost my IP address.
The messages also note that accepting these things automatically can be set in the system preferences panel. I could not figure out how to enable these specific applications - maybe someone else can help - but if you go to System preferences pane, Security, Firewall set to allow all incoming connections. This fixed my problem, however at the cost of some security.
Must be a better solution.

Similar Messages

Airport self-assigned IP shows yellow

HI I have a problem with the network because it shows my Airport self-assigned IP with a yellow button and not green like the Ethernet. I am having problems trying to connect my iPad by airport to get mail and onto the internet, my iPad is showing my iPad in the Wi-Fi networks so am I right that it looks like it's the computer that is at fault and if so any idear what to do? I have changed things on the iPad nothing works I also have tried some of the things that are mentioned in other messages but nothing helps, and this happened out of the blue, I have reset the iPad and that did not help.
Ta

The "yellow" ball or dot usually means you do not have an Internet connection, either by Wifi or Ethernet.
You mentioned something about the "computer in error". Are you trying to hook-up the iPad to the Internet thru your computer? You do know the iPad usually talks wireless to your router, right? Or are you trying to share the Airport/Internet on the computer with your iPad? DId you go into Systems Preferences/Sharing and set Internet Sharing?

DHCP & self-assigned IP problem-Airport doesn't work

I'm not really a technical type, but I'm pretty quick to pick things up and several weeks of trying to deal with this issue has made me pretty knowledgeable about things related to it specifically.
Background:
I have a month-old Macbook Pro that runs Snow Leopard and is up to date on all its software stuff. On our home network we have another pretty new Macbook Pro running 10.5.9 and a fairly old Macbook also running 10.5.9.
We have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router. Our network uses a 40-bit Hex WEP password.
Problem(s):
When I try to connect to our wireless network, Network preferences tells me that it cannot connect because of a self-assigned IP address. Sure enough, the IP address DHCP comes up with is of the 64.XX.XX.XX variety. Google's revealed that this is a common problem for all recent versions of OSX, back to at least Tiger.
The "subnet mask" it comes up with is 255.255.0.0, which is different from the settings on our other (working) computers, which is 255.255.255.0. I'm not sure what this means, or whether it's significant. Renewing the DHCP lease either comes up with the same 64.XX.XX.XX type or, sometimes, it comes up with no IP settings at all. The most frustrating thing about this is that if I chose "DHCP with manual address" and type in any in our set that I've confirmed isn't in use and hit "apply", as soon as I go back to the panel it has reverted to the 64.XX.XX.XX type.
I've also tried manually entering the router/subnet mask/IP data, as well as the DNS numbers, and that leads to the Network Settings connectivity dot thing being green, but the internet still doesn't work. In those cases, diagnostics claims that everything is fine up to and including the ISP, but that it's unable to connect to the server and internet.
Of note: some people with a similar problem have talked about networks with this problem working intermittently, but mine seems to be consistently broken.
Initially I was able to avoid fixing the problem by using our neighbors' unsecured wireless network, which is sort of awful, I know, but at least it kept me from having to deal with this for a while. Today it started to do the same thing to that network. Both networks continue to work on our Macbook and other Macbook Pro, which is why I don't think that it's a router problem.
I've been able to connect to our other computers through computer-to-computer networks—going through our main shared network (and thus the wireless router) doesn't seem to work—which I think shows that the Airport card/hardware itself is intact (?). I did try connecting to the internet through the "internet sharing" option on our Macbook, but that had the exact same problems.
Another thing that may or may not be relevant, but is equally infuriating:
I've also noticed that my Macbook Pro has more trouble staying connected to a network than our Macbook—even when it was working, it disconnected/timed out extremely often, which is something our Macbook never does, even from the same location. When I try to connect to a network it spends a very long time displaying the "searching for network" animation in the menu bar icon, sometimes after the Network Preferences pane believes that it's connected, and sometimes even after I hit the button to turn Airport off. It's also started refusing to connect to any networks at all, on occasion, which is especially evident in the process of the diagnostics box thingy, because there it actually tells me it's unable to connect rather than just playing the searching animation for ages.
Here are some other things that I've tried:
setting up a new 'location'
restarting the computer
deleting the airport preferences file
restarting in safe mode
restarting open firmware
confirming that the firewall allows all incoming thingies
resetting the router
making sure the keychain password allows all applications to access it
connecting to the internet through a computer-to-computer network from another machine
Because the situation has deteriorated over time, I'd also like to know whether people think that it's two problems (the type of router then later the airport hardware(?)/software(?) itself, perhaps) or just one. Since I've tried basically everything besides switching out our router, I'm kind of inclined to blame it on that, especially because one of the more plausible explanations for this problem that I've heard is a time-out error due to Airport expecting a faster response than it's able to get from older routers; however, the fact that other networks haven't been working means that it's not likely to be just the router. If it's just one problem, which is the simpler explanation, then I guess there's something properly wrong with my computer's software, in which case I guess I'll take it to the Apple Store. :/
I'm in love with my computer otherwise, and I'll admit that I spent a good twenty minutes sobbing out of frustration over this. Any help would be immensely appreciated.

HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...
Try Changing the Airport Channel
Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a computer using Mac OS X.
Select the device you’re setting up, and then click Manual Setup. Enter the base station password if necessary
Click AirPort in the toolbar, and then click Wireless.
Choose a new channel from the Channel pop-up menu.
Carolyn

Airport - Self Assigned IP Address Problems

I moved into a new place recently and having problems with my Airport connection on my MacBook Pro. I get the error
"Airport the self-assigned IP Address 169.254.23.207 and will not be able to connect to the internet" (obviously the IP varies)
It's only happened ever since I moved into this new place. Comcast is our ISP and we're using a Netgear Router my step brother bought a while back. I logged into the Router and all settings seem to be normal as far as I can tell. It only happens if the computer goes to sleep or is shut off, any situation where Airport is disabled. I usually have to keep turning Airport On and Off until it comes back. I logged into the router, none of the settings seem wrong. The ISP setting is set to Dynamic IP. It's using WPA and doesn't seem to have a problem with the key.
Here's a screenie: http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9797/screenshot20100924at502.jpg
What could be causing this problem. It's extremely frustrating.

Of course a search for "macbook and connection dropouts" results in numerous pleas for help. That is what you searched for. Did you expect your search to find the millions of users who are not having "macbook and dropout" issues?
FWIW there are many reasons why a wifi connection will "fail or dropout", one of which may be a hardware issue. But more likely is interference, configuration, firmware, router, setup, security, not reading the manual, etc.
What would lead you to believe "Apple technicians apparently are mystified."?
I doubt very much that Apple is involved in a conspiracy of silence "Given all the macs with this problem, why is Apple silent on a fix? Is this actually a hardware problem that would require the replacement of every motherboard in every mac notebook with a faulty broadcom wifi chipset? " But then I don't subscribe to many conspiracy theories.
There are many more Macs without the problem you and others here in this help forum describe than there are with the problem.
Message was edited by: BobTheFisherman

Problems connecting Airport - self assigned IP addresses

Greetings,
I upgraded to a powerbook a few months back, and everything seemed to be working well enough until today. My internet connection (using airport on my powerbook) wasn't working. Usually I just unplug my modem, reconnect, and all works fine.
Today, to my horror, airport does not reconnect as usual and I see the note
AirPort has the self-assigned IP address xxx.xxx.xx.x and will not be able to connect to the Internet.
I've tried using snow leopard cache cleaner, I've tried restarting, I've turned off my iPhone, and disconnected my old mac connected by ethernet.
My iPhone works, using the same wifi, and there are other wifi users nearby.
Not sure what else to mention, any ideas?

try to do it manual:
decide a ipv4 close to your iphone (if iphone has xxx.xxx.x.7) like x.8
next, net-mask must be 255.255.255.0 (if there is something other it's wrong)
router is seen when you open network in iphone, take this.
could be like: 192.168.1.1, if your ip starts with 192 ...
all this in network/more options

Airport: Self-assigned ip address, can't connect (public routers only)

this has been talkeda bout before, but is extremely frustrating, because i don't have the problem with a PC.
1/2 of the public routers i connect to have some kind of login page, most the time they just say "youre getting free internet, click here" ... but sometimes that login page never comes up, and the network card says "airport has a self-assigned ip address and may not be able to connect to the internet"
this only happens on pulic routers for me, and only ones that have login pages.
its very odd because for example, starbucks has all the same routers, all are "attwifi" now .. i go to one, i get hte login screen, go to a different one, i don't get it...and can't connect
with a PC, i get it every time.
this is undoubtably a leopard problem, that needs to be fixed. please!

The wifi icon shows no connection with the network -- the "!" mark.
However the computer sees the network, i.e. when I search in Network Preferences the network is listed.
So: 1) the computer sees the network but 2) will not connect to the network. The reason given for refusal to connect is "self-assigned IP address".
Not to be repetitive but two other Mac laptops are connected to the same network and working perfectly. The network preferences, as shown in the "advanced" section, are the same for all machines, i.e. DHCP is selected and IPv6 is Automatic.

No internet - self assigned ip problem?

I have an Intel imac (OSX leopard, 10.5.8 )and an ethernet modem connected direct to it. The lights are on as usual on the modem but i cannot get the internet. When I look at the ethernet status in network in system preferences it says I have a 'self assigned ip'and may not be able to connect.
I've tried using the mac assistant which tells me I have an ethernet connection but says that both the internet and server have failed. This assistant also advises on ISP status and having run the test a few times it tells me sometimes that the ISP is ok and other times that it has failed. I have tried running the ethernet to an airport express too. Again this lights up as it should (solid green light) but still provides no internet. I've tried connecting to this wireless network with the imac and with an ipad too. Both find the network and connect to it but neither can get any internet from it. Any advice anyone can provide would be very much appreciated, thank you.

Ive been having a similar problem myself. Heres the situation:
Everything runs smoothly with Airport. No issues there. Ive had to invest in a couple home plugs in order to get better wireless signal at my other accomodation. Was fiddling around trying to set up the ethernet connection but it doesnt seem to want to connect beyoun Network settings. ISP, internet and server all fail.
Im completely stumped as to why this is happening when my mac is able to freely connect wirelessly to the same network. I took into consideration it may be a problem with the homeplugs but ive tried a direct connection into the router via ethernet with the same result. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Router: DG834G v2

Self-assigned IP problem - still no resolution!?

I have a Macbook which is about two and a half years old. I have never experienced any real problems with it, especially regarding connections. I have been connected to my home wireless network (BT homehub) ever since I got the laptop with no issues. It has always picked it up the second I turn it on and never drops.
One day, I was traveling back home on the train and I tried my luck at connecting to the trains free wireless, but it didn't work. When I arrived hom, my computer would not connect to our wireless. Somehow when trying to connect to the trains wireless, my preferences must have changed or something meaning that my airport now has a "Self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet".
I went through all of the diagnostics and assistant things, but just kept going round incircles. I re-booted, I tried everything I found online on tis community and others but nothing works.
I have renewed the DHCP Lease - No luck. It says "Configure IPv4: Using DHCP", so it's not that.I tried connecting via Ethernet, but I have the same issue with the Ethernet connection via Airport.
It is not my Router or internet connection because others are using it in the household with no issue. I went a week or so not knowing what to do. Then I had to go back to Uni for a while - there I was able to connect to the internet using the Ethernet cable they provide (we don't have wireless so I couldn't test that) and that was fine, working as smoothly as it has done for the two years I have had the laptop.
I am now home, and still cannot connect to the internet. Can somebody please give me any other options/advice? I am at a loss, and desperately need to access the Internet for work!

I was having the same problem with the wifi not connecting to our home network on only one of our Macbooks. It kept giving itself a self assigned ip address. Everything else would connect fine to the home network and the computer with the problem connected fine to every other network aside from our home wifi. After reading this thread and trying everything on it, this is what finally fixed it: I didn't have anything under the 802.1x tab either. So I:
Turned the Airport off and completely deleted the Airport in network preferences.
Then I went to keychain access and deleted EVERY wifi network password saved under both Login and System.
I turned the computer off and removed the battery and did the SMC reset by holding down the power button for 5 seconds.
When I restarted the computer, I reset the PRAM by holding down OPTION, COMMAND, P, and R at the same time RIGHT AFTER I pushed the power button to turn it on and before the grey screen appeared.
It reset and when the computer was back on, I added the airport again and joined my home WEP wfi network. It worked perfectly! Now I don't know if all of these steps are required to fix the problem but this is what worked for me. The Macbook with the problem was a black Macbook running 10.6.8. Good luck!

Airport self assigned ip and no internet, os 10.5.8

the airport on my system 10.5.8 ( 1.25 GHz powerPC G4, 768 MB DDR SDRAM) has either a self-assigned ip or is not able to connect to my isp. if I try to get to internet the message is connection time out. the connection trough the ethernet cable works fine. my other computers have no trouble with finding and connection with internet.
re-installing the airport software for this system 10.5.8 did not help nor was there any result from consulting the network/system preferences. airport button stays yellow and airport is not connected to a network .while on the menubar my network is checked. scanning for networks using the diagnostic button from networks , shows mostly no networks and seldom any. if they show up, airport and airport settings and network settings stay red.
my airplay-network cann't be connected either ( while my laptop has no problem in doing so).
is this a software problem of system 10.5.8? is there any relief possible? any other suggestions?

Hello mijnnaamisteddy,
The article linked below details some useful information and troubleshooting steps that can help resolve issues with your Airport connection.
Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628
Cheers,
Allen

Airport self-assigned IP address, no internet

We got a new router from Verizon and my Mac will not connect. Network Status gave this message: 'Airport is connected to the network xxxxxx. Airport has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the Internet.
How do I fix this an get connected to the internet?
Thanks in advance,
Mike from Baltimore

I have also encountered this problem and I have been researching it all over the internet all evening and trying everything I could find a suggestion for. Here's what I have: Two G4 Powerbooks, one is a 550MHz 15" Powerbook, the other is a 1.5 GHz 17" Powerbook, they are both running 10.4.11 with all the updates that Software Update has to offer, the 17" is connecting via built in Airport Extreme card, the 15" is connecting via Sonnets Aria Extreme PC card. I have AT&T DSL and I'm using the 2Wire modem/router they provided me with. Neither of the Powerbooks can connect wirelessly to the internet. Furthermore, they cannot even ping the wireless router. 4 days ago, both were connecting without any trouble (and had been able to reliably every day since the beginning of August when I hooked everything up). I have made no changes to my router's settings over the weekend. Nor had I made any changes to the Powerbooks' settings during that time. It just stopped working. If I wire one or both of them to the router with ethernet cables, connection works fine. My Desktop G4 which is normally wired into the router via ethernet, connects fine so I know my internet service is available.
So far, I've restarted both machines numerous times, restarted the router numerous times. Reset the WEP password. Changed the wireless security to WPA. Changed it back to WEP. Trashed the airport plist. deleted every wireless network entry in Keychain. Disabled DHCP and assigned IP numbers manually. Changed the wireless channel (I've tried 1, 6, and 11 with and without interference robustness).
I've been reading posts about this issue on half a dozen web forums (dating back to as early as June 2004). It appears to affect a variety of routers (2Wire, Netgear, Linksys), a variety of machines (Powerbooks, iBooks, MacBookPros, iMacs) a variety of OSes (10.3, 10.4, 10.5).
This thing is really getting me down. Anybody have any other ideas?

Airport self-assigned IP not connected to internet

Hi, Could someone please help with my problem - I have been hacking away at this for 2 nights with no success. I have 3 computers trying to connect to the internet using an Airport Extreme.
-AirPort Extreme is set up and not reporting any problems
-my MacBook Pro (10.6.6) is wirelessly connecting fine
-my MacBook (10.5.8) used to wirelessly connect fine, but since a reboot of the AirPort Extreme on the weekend it has not connected. AirPort is On with message "AirPort has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet". There is an IP address of 169.254.122.47
-my G5 (10.5.?) is also showing a self-assigned IP when connecting wirelessly
I have rebooted modem and AirPort Extreme, changed passwords on the wireless network, updated AirPort Utility, connected via ethernet (works fine)
Getting desperate - any help much appreciated

try the suggestions by Tesserax and *Bob Timmons* in [this|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12983661&#12983661] thread.
JGG

Airport Self-Assigned IP, the wireless doesn't connect to the internet

Hello Everyone,
I have a problem with my airport shows that has a self-assigned IP address and the DCHP doesn't renew, I tried a manually IP but doesn't work neither, I saw this problem about 4 days ago, and I search here in this same sub-forum, I saw that people with Macbook Alu 13'' having exact same problem as for the iMac 27'' Ethernet or Wireless with self-assigned IP have tried everything but nothing seems to work.
I'll leave this link here, maybe someone can be helped with it, I tried but doesn't work...
http://stevejamesson.com/2008/10/01/reset-mac-os-x-network-configuration-factory -default-airport-interface-disappeared/
Please if someone has same problem and can solve it please help me...

please help me...

Airport self-assigned IP address not able to connect to the internet

I installed airport into my eMac and have been using for over a month with no problems. Today I crashed using iWeb and had to restart with the startup button. Upon restart I couldn't get onto the internet via airport. The computer gets on via ethernet and my MacBook can still access the internet via airport. When I am trying to connect with airport I am told I am connected to my wireless network but the System Preferences>Network with Location set to Automatic, Shows Network Status as "Airport has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet." I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make it not self-assign an IP address. I hope someone out there can.

Ouch I was hoping someone would have replied after I went to bed last night.
So I looked at some other posts and tried running applejack to no avail. I also removed the network from my prefered selection and reselected it to see if the WEP was the porblem, it wasn't. Then I switched to manual selection of IP and typed in 192.168.0.1 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. This got rid of the self-assigned IP note but when I tried to use Safari it still said I wasn't connected to the internet. Ugh. Could removing and replacing my airport card fix this problem?

Airport self assigned IP not able connect to Internet

I'm trying to connect my Mac Pro WiFi for the first time and have Airport turned on. Status says Airport hasna self-assigned IP adress and will not be able tonconnect to the Internet.
Anyone know how to get Airport to connect?
Thanks,
Steven

Thanks Linc, after clicking AirPort, Status is On and the correct network is showing in Network Name. when I click Advanced under AirPort tab the network shows in Preferred Networks the network I want to use.
In the TCP/IP tab Configuration IPv4 "Using DHCP" pulldown is selected and the IPv4 Address is the same as the previous screen where it says AirPort has the self assigned IP address and won't be able to connect to the Internet. Hmmm.
What I don't understand is that use this same network without any issues on my iPad and iPhone. Just Mac Pro AirPort is having a problem.
Thanks,
Steven

Airport - Self Assigned IP Addess and no Connectivity

I have been having trouble connecting to wireless. It had been working fine for quite some time (years) and stopped connecting yesterday, although the PCs in our house connect just fine.
In trying to diagnose the issues, I noticed the Airpot connectin says that the IP address is self-assigned and will not be able to connect to the internet. Any ideas? I tried deleting the Airport connection and re-added it, as well as deleting the System Configuration files in the Preference files (suggestions I saw in other discussions) but neither worked. Please help.
Thanks,
Amber

AmberfromEaston wrote:
I noticed the Airpot connectin says that the IP address is self-assigned and will not be able to connect to the internet.
That only means AirPort could not lease an IP from the router. There's nothing to say why it couldn't. The problem may be with the Mac, or it may be with the router. As a first approach, try re-starting the router.

Airport Self-Assigned IP problem

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