Static Addressing; Auto-Ip Addressing - 3Com OfficeConnect 3C855 User Manual

How does a Device Obtain an IP Address and Subnet Mask? 63

Static Addressing

You must enter an IP Address and the subnet mask manually on every device.
Using a static IP and subnet mask means the address is permanently fixed.

Auto-IP Addressing

Network devices use automatic IP addressing if they are configured to acquire an
address using DHCP but are unable to contact a DHCP server. Automatic IP
addressing is a scheme where devices allocate themselves an IP address at random
from the industry standard subnet of 169.254.x.x (with a subnet mask of
255.255.0.0). If two devices allocate themselves the same address, the conflict is
detected and one of the devices allocates itself a new address.
Automatic IP addressing support was introduced by Microsoft in the Windows 98
operating system and is also supported in Windows 2000.