What Is A APIPA

 

APIPA STANDS FOR AUTOMATIC PRIVATE IP ADDRESSING. IT IS A FEATURE IN WINDOWS-BASED OPERATING SYSTEMS THAT ALLOWS A COMPUTER TO AUTOMATICALLY SELF-CONFIGURE AN IP ADDRESS AND SUBNET MASK WHEN IT CANNOT REACH A DHCP SERVER. THE IP ADDRESS RANGE FOR APIPA IS 169.254.0.1 TO 169.254.255.254

WHEN A COMPUTER BOOTS UP, IT FIRST TRIES TO FIND A DHCP SERVER. IF IT CAN FIND A DHCP SERVER, THE DHCP SERVER WILL ASSIGN THE COMPUTER AN IP ADDRESS AND OTHER NETWORK SETTINGS. IF THE COMPUTER CANNOT FIND A DHCP SERVER, IT WILL USE APIPA TO CONFIGURE ITSELF WITH AN IP ADDRESS FROM THE APIPA RANGE.

COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES CAN STILL COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER, BUT THEY CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH COMPUTERS THAT HAVE DHCP-ASSIGNED ADDRESSES. THIS IS BECAUSE COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES DO NOT HAVE A DEFAULT GATEWAY, WHICH IS THE IP ADDRESS OF THE ROUTER THAT CONNECTS THE NETWORK TO THE INTERNET.

APIPA IS A USEFUL FEATURE THAT ALLOWS COMPUTERS TO STILL COMMUNICATE ON A NETWORK EVEN IF THERE IS NO DHCP SERVER AVAILABLE. HOWEVER, IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES WILL NOT HAVE THE SAME LEVEL OF FUNCTIONALITY AS COMPUTERS WITH DHCP-ASSIGNED ADDRESSES.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE LIMITATIONS OF APIPA:

COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES CANNOT ACCESS THE INTERNET.

COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH COMPUTERS ON OTHER NETWORKS.

COMPUTERS WITH APIPA ADDRESSES MAY HAVE DIFFICULTY CONNECTING TO PRINTERS AND OTHER NETWORK DEVICES.

IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH YOUR COMPUTER'S NETWORK CONNECTION, YOU CAN TRY DISABLING APIPA. TO DO THIS, OPEN THE NETWORK AND SHARING CENTER IN WINDOWS AND CLICK ON CHANGE ADAPTER SETTINGS. RIGHT-CLICK ON THE NETWORK ADAPTER THAT YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH AND SELECT PROPERTIES. CLICK ON THE INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 4 (TCP/IPV4) TAB AND SELECT THE USE THE FOLLOWING IP ADDRESS OPTION. ENTER A STATIC IP ADDRESS AND SUBNET MASK IN THE APPROPRIATE FIELDS. CLICK ON OK TO SAVE YOUR CHANGES.