How is DHCP used on a LAN?

Question

How is DHCP used on a LAN?

Answer 1

Router assigns IP addresses to any PC configured as DHCP client. The range is configurable in the router by the network admin after careful consideration of about 1,000 factors.

Answer 2

You have a DHCP server that maintains all the ip addresses for a given subnet, then it distributes the IP's to clients when requested by a client, it assigns how long a lease is for, mac addresses are exchanged and this is how the DHCP server keeps track of what piece of hardware is assigned to what IP.

A mac address is an internal alpha/number string that each piece of hardware has and every piece in a network should have a unique mac.

zachsandb..
Are you fricken nuts, if you have more than 20 machines it would be nearly impossible to keep track them statically, dynamically assigned is much easier, I goto my dhcp table and it tells me what each machine's name is to ip, how do you get any easier than that.

Answer 3

DHCP lets you connect computers to the router on the fly, allowing them to automatically pick up an IP address, or a range of addresses that you have available. The opposite is the static IP which you assign to the PC manually. I use static IPs on my network as it is easier to keep track of which machine is which.

Zach