What did I connect to?

[BaRR]

For ages, my computer has been connecting to 192.168.1.100 (or something similar) for my home network.  Today, however, my firewall asked to connect to MY network, but under the IP address 169.254.96.4.

I'm worried about WHY it switched IP addresses for seemingly no reason. It still states it's connected to my home network, however, I've never seen my computer connect to 169.254.96.4 before. I'm going to avoid logging on anywhere until I can get some help, some info would be much appreciated.

EDIT: I found out this belongs to IANA.

Quoted from their website: "As use of these numbers is untracked and unrestricted, we can not tell you who is using these numbers."

Should I be worried?

[Rob Pomeroy]

Although I don't recognise this particular sequence of octets, 169.x.x.x addresses are characteristic of a failed or incomplete DHCP request.  In other words, right-clicking on your network settings and choosing "repair" may resolve this.  If it doesn't consider using different means of connecting to the router - i.e. wired instead of wireless (if appropriate) or using a different ethernet cable.

[BaRR]

Okay, thanks. I feel better now.

However, by "Failed or Incomplete DHCP request" do you mean it didn't connect properly? Because, after it asked to connect to that number, it did in fact continue normal internet operation. Did it fix itself?

[Rob Pomeroy]

We'd need more information such as the output of a treaceroute.  Is your computer's IP address still set to 169.254.96.4, or has the moment passed?