Hi. Seems you have a network problem afterall. The IP address starting with 169 indicates windows has used its default "autoconfiguration ip address" which is 169.x.x.x. Verify by doing
Start | Run | cmd | ipconfig
As far as I understand, the whole autoconfiguration IP address can sometimes works as an error code. suggest you google with the whole IP address.
Make sure you have network connection (network lamp blinking, etc).
Then ask the tech guys at school wether they use static (manually configured) IP addresses or if they have a DHCP server (dynamic host configuration protocol) for giving you the IP addresses.
If they use a DHCP server, the 169.x.x.x often means you cannot reach the server for getting an IP address, and so windows just assigned this default address for you. Also it could mean that the address scopen on the DHCP server is full (not very likely, but have seen it). try to do an
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
If however they do not use a DHCP server, you will have to get an address from the sysadmin and configure it manually.
Control Panel | Network ... | Local Area Connection | Properties | Internet Protocol | Properties