148 APPENDIX A: IP ADDRESSINGAuto-IP Addressing Network devices use automatic IP addressing if they are configured toacquire an address using DHCP but are unable to contact a DHCP server.Automatic IP addressing is a scheme where devices allocate themselvesan IP address at random from the industry standard subnet of169.254.x.x (with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0). If two devices allocatethemselves the same address, the conflict is detected and one of thedevices allocates itself a new address.Automatic IP addressing support was introduced by Microsoft in theWindows 98 operating system and is also supported in Windows 2000and Windows XP.
