Cause of airport self addressed IP issue

[suckatcomputers]

Hi everybody,

My Mac Mini has been running smooth since I bought it in Feb but beginning last week:

For the 1st time I got the "Airport has self assigned IP address 169...and will not be able to connect to the internet" problem.

Recently Firefox has been periodically running slower and I've been getting hard-to-close popups with video ads that run automatically which is driving me nuts. Could this be caused by the above mentioned?

I just fixed the airport issue and previous threads suggest this could very well happen again.

Does anybody know THE CAUSE? Any ideas on how I can avoid/limit/prevent this issue in the future?

 

[miles01110]

For the 1st time I got the "Airport has self assigned IP address 169...and will not be able to connect to the internet" problem.

...

Does anybody know THE CAUSE? Any ideas on how I can avoid/limit/prevent this issue in the future?

This typically happens when your Mac can't get an IP address from the DHCP server, which is either at your ISP if you are only connecting through a modem or, more typically, on your router handing out private IP addresses (192.168.x.x usually).

Maybe your router is failing, if you have one.

 

[suckatcomputers]

Thanks for the reply.

I should've been more clear in my question. This is a common issue with mac minis and other macs (I think). It's definitely the Airport or some other disfunction in the mac mini device. My router was working fine. My roommates and I have not touched the router in months and it would initially show full signal before abruptly not connecting. I fixed it by restarting and by simply waiting. Very unusual...