How Is This Possible?

[Buadhai]

The Network control panel tells me that this machine has a self assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the Internet. However, I'm logged on to it via Chrome Remote Desktop. So, obviously it can connect to the Internet. It is WiFi only; no Ethernet cable. And, there's this:

 

[reukiodo]

Self-assigned doesn't mean not routable. Your client mac (whatever you are remotely accessing from) could be able to discover that mac over ethernet using bonjour, which IIRC, uses lower level ARP packets to discover hosts, and does not require IP to be set up correctly. Once the ARP is discovered, it is relatively simple for the client OS to map the non-routable IP to the actual hardware MAC address of the serving Mac, allowing IP connections to establish.

 

[Buadhai]

Sorry, for not making myself clearer. The IP address 172.16.0.56 is a private IP address that was assigned by the DHCP server on my AirPort Extreme. I've never seen such an address called a "self-assigned IP address". And, the language "will not be able to connect to the Internet" is somewhat baffling since the machine is obviously connected to the Internet.

I am able to connect to the machine, which is behind a double NAT, via a reverse SSH tunnel:

MrMuscle:~ mnewman$ ssh -p [nnnnn] mnewman@localhost
Last login: Mon Jul  8 05:51:02 2019 from 172.16.0.56

So, why does the OS say that this is a self-assigned IP address when it was assigned by a DHCP server and why does the OS say that the machine will not be able to connect to the Internet?

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Try removing then recreating the wifi interface.

 

[Buadhai]

Try removing then recreating the wifi interface.

I can't really do that remotely. I'll be at that site in a few days. I'll try then.

 

[Buadhai]

Try removing then recreating the wifi interface.

I tried turning WiFi off and on and that changed nothing.

My wife's MBA is connected to the same network with the IP address of 172.16.0.55. All it says is that WiFi is connected. Nothing about a self-assigned IP address or being unable to connect to the Internet.

I reset the SMC on my MBA, but the odd message is still there.

 

[2984839]

That message should only appear if you have an APIPA address. Maybe your initial DHCP query failed and you got an APIPA address, but then it tried again and succeeded without clearing the message, probably due to a bug somewhere. Just guessing here.

 

[satcomer]

I tried turning WiFi off and on and that changed nothing.

My wife's MBA is connected to the same network with the IP address of 172.16.0.55. All it says is that WiFi is connected. Nothing about a self-assigned IP address or being unable to connect to the Internet.

I reset the SMC on my MBA, but the odd message is still there.

Then Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac! See if that helps!

 

[Buadhai]

What finally worked was installing High Sierra (over Mavericks).