How to fix the 'Self Assigned IP Address' issue

Sometimes, rather than connecting to a known WiFi network, you will instead see an exclamation mark in front of the menubar symbol and an error message stating that connection is not possible as you have a self-assigned IP address.


To fix this issue, do this:

  1. Turn the Airport OFF.
  2. Go to System PreferencesNetworkAdvanced, select the network & click '-' to remove it.
  3. Go to System PreferencesSecurity & Privacy and turn the Firewall OFF.
  4. Go to Utilities and open Keychain; delete the network entry and then run Keychain First Aid from the main menu to repair it.
  5. Go to Utilities, open Disk Utility and repair disk permissions.
  6. OPTIONAL: if you have Bluetooth on or DropBox, turn these off as they may interfere with the process.
  7. Now restart the computer...
  8. Once logged back in, it should prompt you to join a network, select the one you've had issues with and enter it's password.
  9. Then go to System PreferencesNetworkAdvanced and select the network, then click the 'TCP/IP' tab and keep pressing the 'Renew DHCP Lease' button until you get a new IP address (usually something like 10.0.x.x on an airport network and 192.168.x.x on other networks).
  10. Once online, restart DropBox and Bluetooth as needed, and turn your Firewall back on.
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