How to troubleshoot network connectivity with a DHCP server

If your Windows XP computer can’t communicate on the network, try opening a command prompt and typing ipconfig. If your IP address displays as 169.254.x.y then your computer probably rebooted recently but couldn’t contact a DHCP server to lease an address, and as a result your computer auto-assigned itself an IP address using Automatic IP Address Allocation (APIPA). Try typing ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew to release the APIPA address and lease a new address from the DHCP server. If you still get an APIPA address after this, then either you have a network connectivity problem between your computer and the DHCP server, or the DHCP server is down.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com