Fixing 169.254.x.x problem with network bridge

You may get 169.254.x.x because of the Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA) feature of windows. The windows OS may assign a private IP if the network card is setup to get IP from a DHCP server and is not able to do so. This can be a generic problem and the solution will be specific to the problem. The above info should give you some pointer to explore further. One of the most common problems is that a firewall on you machine may be preventing your machine from getting the IP from the DHCP server.

The problem that we are going to solve today is when this problem may happen because of network bridge. A network bridge is typically used to share the internet between two network devices. One of it could be a wireless device and the other a wired device. The exact problem that I am facing is as follows:

I have a network bridge between my wireless device and my ethernet card. When I connect to internet using LAN cable between the ethernet port of my PC and router, I could share the internet on my LAN with the devices connected to my wireless. Also, if I do not have the network bridge, I can connect to the internet over my wireless. But while having the network bridge, if I try to connect to the internet over wireless, I am not able to do so. I get the 169.254.x.x IP which is not in the range of my router's IP. The fix is as follows:

1. Open the command window (from Run->cmd.exe or programs)
2. Issue the command "netsh bridge show adapter"
3. See the id of the adapter that is not working
4. If the "compatibility mode" is not enabled, you should force it
5. Issue the command "netsh bridge set adapter id forcecompatmode=enable" (Replace "id" with the number of adapter id)
6. Run the command "netsh bridge show adapter" and verify that it is enabled.
7. Issue the command "ipconfig /renew" to renew the IP and then issue "ipconfig".
8. You should see an IP that is in the range of your router's IP address.
9. Enjoy!

Source: Microsoft Knowledgebase

How to fix 169.x.x.x IP problem in windows vista

The other day me and my friend were struggling to fix this funny problem in windows vista where it always gets 169.x.x.x IP address. And because of this the PC is not able to connect to the internet. When we searched that net I am surprised to see the number of people facing this problem. But unfortunately, the solutions offered in those forums did not work for us. We tried many things like disabling the DHCP and assigning a static IP address, editing some settings in registery entry for the network connection, remvoing and adding the connection again etc.

At the end of an hour or so, when we found the fix for the problem we felt like slapping our face because the problem is such a stupid problem. Ok, the problem is that the mcafee is installed on the machine and the firewall is enabled thereby forming a proxy network which is not allowing us to directly connect to the internet. We simply disabled the firewall in mcafee and voila!, we are able to connect to the internet.

It may not be such a good idea to completely disable the firewall as the machine is directly exposed to the internet. There should be some solution to connect to the internet while the firewall is enabled. But, we will worry about it for some other day.