Understanding DHCP
DHCP allows individual computers on a TCP/IP network to obtain their configuration information - in particular, their IP address - from a server. The DHCP server keeps track of which IP addresses have already been assigned so that when a computer requests an IP address, the DHCP server will offer it an IP address that is not already in use.
Configuration information provided by DHCP
Although the primary job of DHCP is to dole out IP addresses and subnet masks, DHCP actually provides more configuration information than just the IP address to its clients. The additional configuration information is referred to as DHCP options. The following is a list of some common DHCP options that can be configured by the server:
- The router address, also known as the Default Gateway address
- The expiration time for the configuration information
- Domain name
- DNS server address
- WINS server address
