Help! Computer can't connect to home network, wrong IP address igned?

Addresses in the 169.254.0.0/16 are reserved for computers that can't acquire an IP address. The first thing I'd do would be to check out the computer and cable by trying to configure the interface manually. Uncheck the "automatically detect settings" and fill in something like 192.168.1.105 for the IP address, 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask, and 192.168.1.1 for the primary DNS Server & for the Gateway. If these are set up this way and you still have no network connection, it could be you're using a bad cable or your networking hardware is damaged. Also, make sure you're using the right IP Address. I buy almost exclusively D-Link equipment and in my experience their routers usually issue 192.168.0.x numbers, not 192.168.1.x numbers, so that might be part of your problem with manual configuration as well. Either way, if you can get a proper connection have having reset your IP address, Subnet Mask, DNS address, and Gateway, the next step would be to see if you can force your computer into acquiring an IP Address etc. properly. Set your computer to acquire all its information automatically again, and then go Start -> Run... and type in cmd, and hit enter. This will bring up a command prompt, type in ipconfig /release and then hit enter. When the prompt comes back, type in ipconfig /renew and then hit enter. If it comes back to a prompt with a successful message, you're good to go. If not, you may have some sort of faulty DHCP server. You can try doing a hard reset of the router, or you can just live with having to manually ign IP Address.