BT Broadband Problems! What Is A "Peeper" IP Address?

LouLou

I hope someone out there can help a computer dunce..

I have a BT Home Hub, and I'm usually connected with a wireless adapter, BT Voyager 1055 (or ethernet cable if I'm having problems).

I went offline out of the blue 2 days ago. At first I was told it was probably a fault on the line, as my landline was working, my broadband was not..apparently I could send packets of data but couldn't receive packets of data from their server. On their Home Hub Connectivity Check screen a few nights ago, it said DSL was working, ATM "could not send back loopback cell" and PPP "your connection is currently down". Whatever that lot means.

Now, tonight, I went back online for a few hours, no idea why it suddenly worked. Then offline again a few hours later.

I phoned BT when I went offline again tonight. The helpdesk asked me to do Start>Run>type in "cmd">then "ipconfig". The guy tutted when I read out the results. My "autoconfiguration IP" address showed as what the BT guy called a "peeper" IP address, 169.254.210.188, instead of the BT IP address, 192.168.1.64.

As a last ditch attempt (not as instructed by the BT helpdesk, I thought I'd try it myself), I uninstalled everything, ran a registry cleaner, and reinstalled the Home Hub from scratch. And I'm back online again, hooray!

What is a "peeper" IP address, and why would my IP address change? Is it a virus or something? I haven't tinkered with anything, honest

Any advice gratefully received. Please tell me in idiot speak though

roxorx

no idea whta a 'peeper' ip address is, never heard tha term in 10 years of IT support/consultancy!

the reason for getting a 169. address is when your machine tries to connect to a DHCP server (like the home hub) but fails, it allocates one itself so to speak. no point, as it wont work obviously!

glad it's all working though. :cool:

LouLou

It was the Indian call centre, so perhaps I picked him up wrong?

Still none the wiser as to what went wrong, let's hope there's no more hiccups with my broadband

I was being told to phone my PC's manufacturer when that 169. IP address showed up, which sounded like a major headache.

nickmack

As roxorx said, the 169.254.*.* address is one that has been allocated by Windows when it should find a DHCP server but can't. It's usually a network issue, you should badger your ISP some more about why you can't get an address from their DHCP server.

LouLou

Someone phoned from the BT call centre earlier.

I would try badgering them, but I couldn't get any answers. He kept saying, "The problem is resolved now?".

I couldn't get a *reason* why it was happening, I got the feeling they wanted to tick me off their list.

nickmack

If you're not satisfied, don't end the call. Tell them, the problem is not resolved and you want further help. If the person you speak to is not doing their job, ask to speak to their supervisor.

nej

Peeper address? I like these tech support people who make up terms because they don't know what they're talking about.

Zahc

nej wrote:

Peeper address? I like these tech support people who make up terms because they don't know what they're talking about.

Quite. Obviously it was a 'Loop Back Redundant Remote Local Address':rotfl:

Sorry, I get bored easily........

Zahc

johnmc

Or it could have been caused by "surging dirty electricity", as a former colleague used to call software bugs!

albertross_2

It's apipa, (automatic private IP addressing), which means a 169 ip address XP allocated, because it cant find a dhcp server to allocate the correct local ip 192.168.x.x, or 10.x.x.x etc. This problem is between your PC and your hub, not external to it.

nickmack

albertross wrote:

This problem is between your PC and your hub, not external to it.

Possibly, but not necessarily. It could be a problem outside of the OP network, APIPA can occur when the DHCP server is down or unreachable.