I am trying to set up a sony vaio on a wired home network. The The tcp/ip protocol is set to assign automaticall and DHCP in enabled. When I look at the connection status, "Address Type" = "Automatic private Address" instead of "assigned by DHCP". I have uninstalled and reinstalled, i have changed out cards and switches, i have connected a cable modem directly to the computer and nothing seems to make the dhcp assign the IP correctly. When i choose to Repair, it gives the same IP address as always...and the same address type but doesn't list a default gateway.When i choose repair, it tells me it can't asign an IP. Please help!!

Right-click "My Computer" and select Manage. Go to the Services item and look for DHCP Client and check that it's started and set to automatic. If not, double-click to set to automatic, click apply and then start it. Reboot or disable/enable the LAN connection to get DHCP to connect. If still no go, post back.

That was already running as automatic, but i stopped and started it again just to make sure and still no go.

Try replacing the cable--I'm not familiar with wired networks but I've set up a wireless one and recently had the same problem. After exhausting all other options it turned out that changing out the cable linking my modem to the router solved the problem.