Icon States Acquiring Network Address

This is stated on the mouse-over of the animated network icon in the system tray, and the network is actually connected and there are no problems seen. Everything appears to be working fine, just this annoying statement and the little animated icon in the system tray. Here is the fix for a Machine is running Windows XP SP2. All updates are current.

  • select "Open Network Connections" (right click on network icon, it's on that menu)

  • Right Click on the connection you are having issues with and select PROPERTIES

  • On the "General" tab (should be selected by default), there is a list of items with checkboxes, find "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" it's usually (always?) the last one.. CLICK on it (select it)

  • Click the "PROPERTIES" button, a new dialog "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties" should appear

  • Click the "ADVANCED..." button

  • Pick the WINS tab

  • In the "NetBIOS Setting" frame, select something OTHER than the "Default" (I chose Enable, a safe bet if you are unsure).

  • Click OK to close the dialog. In my instance, the "Acquiring" message disappeared immediately and the icon now shows network traffic.

  • Click OK to close the next dialog

  • Click CLOSE (closes the Connection Properties dialog)

  • You may need to reboot you machine

  • NOTE: If this does not work, go back and undo what you did, so you can try something else without compounding the problem.