I am working on a PC for a client. The PC has XP Home, and has no virus protection(figures). I'm attempting to install anti virus, adaware, etc... on it, but I have no connection to the Internet through the LAN. The machine is configured to obtain an address automatically, but it just "APIPA's". If I statically define the address, then things get really interesting. :-( Once my address is statically defined, I am able to ping any PC on the LAN by IP address or name, I could ping the gateway, I could ping a public IP address throught the gateway, but cannot ping outside the gateway by name. Furthermore, I cannot release/renew my IP address because it wont release the 169.254.xxx.xxx address after the ipconfig /relese command. Before you blame DNS, let me assure you that this machine, while having a static IP address is/was configured exactly the same as a functional PC (DNS Settings). Before you blame network connectivity issues, this PC is using the cable of a fullly functional PC, and before you blame the NIC, I installed a brand new Gigabit NIC and it did not rectify the problem. Can anyone help??????