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Hi,

I have a weird problem with my workstation at home. All of a sudden the network connection status says "Acquiring network address", however, my computer is running on a static IP address and has been doing so for years now.

I have a wireless access point (WAP) that is configured as DHCP server assigning addresses in the range - and my workstation is at 192.168.2.51. The WAP has been part of the network for about a year and a half.

Another funny thing is that although it says "Acquiring network address" I have full connectivity to network and Internet.

My WAP was rebooted yesterday, after the problem started, and nothing changed.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thx

Yomet

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Dani AI

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This kind of symptom — the NIC/Windows status reads "Acquiring network address" while actual traffic works and the problem later clears by itself — is usually not a layer‑3 routing failure. It most often means the OS or the network-status services are out of sync with the adapter state (DHCP/NLA probes, cached state, or a brief service/hardware hiccup), rather than that the host truly lacks an IP. ’s observation that it cleared on its own fits that pattern.

Quick, practical checks (safe to run now)

ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
arp -a

Use ipconfig /all to confirm whether Windows thinks the interface is using DHCP or a static address and to inspect lease/source details. arp -a can reveal duplicate-address symptoms. flushdns is harmless and removes stale name entries.

If it reappears, try these targeted steps

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew     (if using DHCP)
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

Restarting the DHCP Client and the OS network-location services (or simply toggling the adapter off/on or rebooting the host) often clears the UI state. Also check for third‑party firewall/security software that can block the small HTTP/DNS probes Windows uses to determine network status — when those probes fail the icon can stick even though data flows.

When to dig deeper
Check System/Event logs for DHCP/TCPIP/NlaSvc entries and, if needed, capture DHCP traffic with a packet tool to confirm whether Windows is actually requesting/receiving DHCP. Update or roll back the NIC driver and recreate the wireless profile if the problem is persistent. These steps usually find whether this was a transient service/UI mismatch or a real DHCP/conflict issue.

Member Avatar for Member #53442

A Status update - It went away on it's own and I have no idea what caused it or what corrected it.

Thx

Yomet

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