Earlier this year I bought a wireless linksys router for my new cable connection, I formerly had dial up and used a hub for my home network of 5 wired comps. I had some comps linked to the router, and I had it connected to the hub for the others, it worked great, then after a few weeks my wireless laptop started receiving this ip 169.254.63.xxx and a subnet of 255.255.0.0 and was unable to connect to the network, and it would stay like that for a few days, then it would receive the right ip again, and as time went on this started happening more frequently. Last month I wanted to expand my network range to other buildings on my property, so I bought a Belkin Pre N, the signal is great, I had it hooked up to my router, and it was giving my laptop and my other 3 wireless comps the wrong ip again. I think I have only gotten my laptop to connect to it 1 or 2 times, 99% of the time i'm recieving the wrong ips on my wi-fi's. At first I thought it was my router giving out the wrong numbers, but I changed routers and it's still doing it, sometimes I can get a connection on my first router and not the belkin and vice-versa. My first router is setup as a router and not an AP. I thought it could be something to do with my isp Cogeco, they allow 3 ip's, but my line out from the modem goes to a router and then out to a hub and the Belkin router, I even tried replacing the hub with another router and still nothing. Does anyone have ANY idea what the problem could be, I can't find anyone else with the same problem.

P4 3.4 ghz
1 gb ram
Asus P4P800 se motherboard
ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card
40 GB Western Digital hard drive
150 GB Western Digital 2nd hard drive
LG DVD Rom
LG DVD Ram bu

I am having problems following your physical setup. Is your cable modem connected to the WAN port of your Linksys router, and then your Belkin (router or AP?) is connected to one of the switch ports on the Linksys? Which port on the Belkin is connected to the Linksys? The WAN or a LAN port?

The 169 dot whatever address with a 255.255.0.0 mask indicates that your clients are not communicating with a DHCP server. It sounds like you have DHCP enabled on both the Linksys and the Belkin, which isn't a good idea.

If this isn't how you have your network setup, try it. Connect the Cable Modem to the WAN/Internet port of your Linksys router. Make sure DHCP is enabled on the Linksys. Connect a switch port on the Linksys to a switch port on the Belkin, make sure DHCP is disabled on the Belkin. Do not connect from a LAN port on the Linksys to the WAN port on the Belkin. If the Belkin is a router, then you will be doing double-NAT.

If you still experience the same problem, it might be the way you have your wireless configured. I would take a laptop and start hard-wiring it to either the Linksys or the Belkin to see if you get a correct IP that way. If you do, then DHCP is working correctly, and its a wireless issue.

Is it possible that when you are getting a correct IP on your laptops, that you are hopping on a nearby network and not your own? Is your WLAN configured with any type of encryption or MAC filtering?

169.x.x.x means you were not able to contact your dhcp server.

Sounds to me like you have multiple aps/wireless routers and you have not configured them correctly.

The device doing dhcp should be the one closest to the internet modem. The rest should have dhcp DISABLED. This way you only have one dhcp server suppling ip to all your devices.

Golly gee wilerkers everyone! Learn to Internet Search

If you were networking 5 PCs over a hub to the modem then you must have one of the nice ISPs that hands out as many IP addresses as asked for from one connection. Many providers have it written into the service contract this is theft of service and will get you canned for doing it. I'd take a peek at the TOS on their website and make sure, if I were you.

Having disposed of that issue, the other posters are correct; you can only have ONE (1) DHCP server enabled on a network segment (your LAN). Furthermore the more clients on your LAN, the smaller their slice of bandwidth so you have to watch out for that, too. Multiple users all d/ling long binary files all at once can really slow down the network for the other users. Check to see how many clients your router can handle; some home routers are limited to like 32 clients, even though the private range 192.168.xxx.xxx allows for many more.

If you're getting a better signal from your Belkin Pre N dump the Linksys and hang all your Wireless clients off it. Be carefull about the range to the other buildings on your property because some may be out of range or blocked from the signal some other way. Ideally the router should be centrally located so no client is way out there on its own. You may need a range expander or to run a fiber optic cable out to a WAP at the remote site(s) if you can't maintain a decent signal strength out there.

Sorry about that.

My current setup is this

RCA Cable Modem to WAN port on
Linksys Router LAN - comp1
LAN - comp2
LAN - Hub to comp3 comp4comp5
LAN - WAN port on Belkin Pre N on different floor.

I disabled DHCP in the Belkin, I changed it to AP mode, I did everything I can think of. The wi-fi connection problem is with both the Linksys and the Belkin, lastnight I was able to connect to the Linksys, and even this morning, but not to the Belkin, and when I tried to connect back to the Linksys it got the 169.254. again. I can connect to other networks outside my home without a problem. Lastnight I found this http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835304 which I think might be the problem, but I have no idea how to fix it, I contacted Linksys and they wouldn't help me, all they told me to do was run their netset program, which did jack s---. Does anyone know how to fix the problem in the microsoft article? I've contacted Linksys many times over the months and they provide me no help. I don't think the problem is my set up, because it's basically been the same and sometimes I can get a net connection on my wi-fi's and sometimes not, and nothing in the setup changes.

P4 3.4 ghz
1 gb ram
Asus P4P800 se motherboard
ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card
40 GB Western Digital hard drive
150 GB Western Digital 2nd hard drive
LG DVD Rom
LG DVD Ram bu

Is the linksys also a wireless router? If so disable the wireless on it. I will bet its conflicting with the belkin.

Golly gee wilerkers everyone. Learn to Internet Search

Don't connect the LAN port of the Linksys to the WAN port of the Belkin. This is the double-NAT I am talking about, and even if the Belkin is in AP mode, it still won't work properly.

Connect a LAN port on the Linksys to a LAN port on the Belkin and everything should be OK. With the way you have it setup now, a wireless client connecting to the Belkin will request an IP address and it will fail because that DHCP Discover broadcast packet will not penetrate the WAN port of the Belkin router. Even though it is a SOHO router, by definition broadcast traffic will not be forwarded through router interfaces. This is one reason why routers are used to segment LANs.

Thanks for the help.

I tried it plugged into the LAN port earlier today and nothing happened, but I will try again, since I just got my laptop connected to the Linksys, maybe it will work now. If I get it connected I will also disable the wi-fi on the linksys like someone suggested.

P4 3.4 ghz
1 gb ram
Asus P4P800 se motherboard
ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card
40 GB Western Digital hard drive
150 GB Western Digital 2nd hard drive
LG DVD Rom
LG DVD Ram bu

I plugged it into the LAN port on the Belkin and nothing, also disabled the ssid broadcast on the linksys and still nothing. I've had it working before when they were both on the default settings, I've always had this problem ever since i got the wi-fi's and linksys router, it didn't happen very often in the beginning, it just kept happening more and more often and now it's almost impossible to get online or browse the network. When I got the Belkin I just plugged it from the LAN port on the linksys to the WAN port on the Belkin, and it was in router mode, and it worked no problem for about a day, then it did the same thing as the linksys and no settings were changed. When the linksys first started doing it, to fix it all I had to do was manually enter an ip address and subnet, let it sit for a min, then go back and change it to automatic, and then restart, and that would usually do the trick, but then after awhile it stopped working. The other day I tried replacing the Linksys with a different router hoping the wi-fi's would work, but it made no diff, they were still getting the 169.254. So i'm not exactly sure it's the routers, but all 4 of my wi-fi's have the problem. I found something from Microsoft yesterday, but I don't know how to even start fixing the problem, it says to contact the third party DHCP server, which I assume is the router company, I was on with Linksys a few times and tried to tell them what the microsoft article said and gave them the link and even pasted it to them, but they just ignored it and got me to do the same crap they do everytime and it has never solved anything.

Here is what Microsoft says: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835304

A DHCP client computer occasionally cannot obtain an IP address from a server that is running a non-Microsoft version of a DHCP service
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 835304
Last Review : March 22, 2004
Revision : 1.0
SYMPTOMS
A DHCP client computer occasionally cannot obtain an IP address from a server that is running a non-Microsoft version of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service. If you wait for several minutes and then restart the client computer, you may be able to obtain an IP address.
CAUSE
This problem occurs if all the following conditions are true:
• The client computer's lease of the IP address has expired.
• The IP address that the client computer was using is no longer available.
• The client computer is using a non-Microsoft DHCP server.
• The non-Microsoft DHCP server is configured to ignore "duplicate" DHCP discover messages (DHCPDISCOVER).
This problem occurs because the client computer sends three DHCP discover messages with the Requested Address field set to the client computer's previous IP address. The DHCP client computer always sends three DHCP discover messages if both of the following conditions are true:
• The client computer's lease of the IP address has expired.
• The IP address that the client computer was using is no longer available.
The client computer sends three DHCP discover messages to verify that the client computer's former IP address is no longer available. The client computer accepts the IP address that is provided in the third DHCP offer message (DHCPOFFER).

However, if the DHCP server is configured to ignore "duplicate" DHCP discover messages, the DHCP server replies only to the first DHCP discover message with a DHCP offer message. The DHCP server ignores subsequent DHCP discover messages. Therefore, the client computer never receives the third DHCP offer message.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, configure the DHCP server to not ignore "duplicate" DHCP discover messages. For example, if you are using a Lucent VitalQIP DHCP server device, configure the CheckTransactionID=0 parameter in the Dhcpd.pcy file so that the DHCP server answers all DHCP discover messages. Contact the manufacturer of your DHCP server device for information about how to configure this setting. For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your DHCP server device, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

P4 3.4 ghz
1 gb ram
Asus P4P800 se motherboard
ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card
40 GB Western Digital hard drive
150 GB Western Digital 2nd hard drive
LG DVD Rom
LG DVD Ram bu

This is going back to the beginning of your post, but do the PC's that are connected directly to the Linksys obtain their IP addresses correctly, everytime?

With the Linksys and the Belkin connected via LAN ports, take a laptop and plug directly into an open ethernet port on the Belkin and see if it can get an IP address from the Linksys DHCP server. If it can, we are looking at a wireless issue.

What OS and Service Pack are these laptops running? I have seen XP Professional and XP Home, SP1, get a little screwy and sometimes automatically choose WEP encryption even if you have disabled it in the past and are not utilizing that encryption on your network. In that case, sometimes, the laptops will recognize and, in a sense, connect to the network, but will not get an IP address properly until the WEP keys are negotiated and confirmed.

Are you using the Windows Configuration tool to configure your wireless interfaces, or the proprietary software that comes with the NICs?

The only way I can get it to work is to have both routers on the default setting, and have the cable going from the LAN port on the Linksys to the WAN port on the Belkin, and it works fine.

P4 3.4 ghz
1 gb ram
Asus P4P800 se motherboard
ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT video card
40 GB Western Digital hard drive
150 GB Western Digital 2nd hard drive
LG DVD Rom
LG DVD Ram bu

I have a similar problem. D-Link DI-624 wireless router connected to Dell Wireless 1370 b/g card on a Latitude D610. I have had this connection for months without problems and then for reasons I can't understand I now get the ip 169.254.63.xxx and a subnet of 255.255.0.0 reported by the poster. The only way I can fix the problem is either (a) leave the router in open (no security) mode or (b) temporarily hardwire connect the laptop to an open port on the back of the DI-624 and then do a repair on the wireless connection. For option (b) the laptop then picks up the correct ip address of the router and I can then disconnect the ethernet cable. Amazing thing is that when I get that ip 169.254.63.xxx and a subnet of 255.255.0.0 my wireless connection shows that it is connected to my SSID which it isn't.

I've encountered the same problem, mysteriously, after everything has worked fine for months. Now I get nothing but 169... to a Dell machine that is connected directly (no wireless), running XP Pro. My thought is that XP Pro is now in a bad state because of a short test I did hooking up a wireless USB device, which has since been uninstalled. Any other thoughts???