Recently a friend called me for some quick help claiming his Internet isn't working. The provider seemingly was doing something the day before and after they were done he plugged in the router again and then updates and login of Steam and Discord were failing. Also issues with the Opera web browser ...
So he asked me to connect via TeamViewer which actually worked, already a good sign. I tried checking opening random websites. Mostly fine depending on browser. But some software couldn't get proper Internet connection, so something was off. Other devices in the same network no issues, but these were running over Wifi. Searching around and after trying ipconfig I got an idea. The IP address started with 169.x, so basically a placeholder for a failed attempt. Interestingly Internet still worked despite that. "Ipconfig/ renew" didn't work either, so I manually added the Google DNS 8.8.8.8. And that actually worked! Ip address is there and Discord etc. working again.
But how did this happen? My friend later said that he initially plugged the LAN cable in the wrong port of the router. And maybe that's were the DHCP request failed and maybe got stuck? Either way, solved.
