Originally Posted by
sobore
The IP address did begin with 169. Now I have 0.0.0.0, I try an IPCONFIG /RENEW and it tells me the request timed out unable to contact the DHCP server. I should mention I tried to re-start the network bridge with no results.
169... is a bogon range that XP defaults to when it cannot acquire a valid address. In other words, its not getting an address from the DHCP server.
Double check your wireless router, make sure DHCP is turned on. Then make sure you are successfully connected to the wireless network. Also, power cycle the router, most of those consumer level routers lock up from time to time...
I've been seeing some issues b/t XP SP2 and WPA2 with AES. So if your security is WPA2 with AES you might want to see if your laptop's wifi card has a wifi management program that you can use other than what's built into XP.
If all else fails and you think you are joined to the network properly, then try assigning a manual address in the correct range. For instance, if you use 192.168.1.x then try something on the high end, like 192.168.1.232 (random and high) or below the scope of the DHCP range like 192.168.1.78 then see if you can connect to the internet. If you can then it may be a DHCP server or client issue...it will at least tell us more.