Dhcp-Handbook.com
Title
The DHCP Handbook
Description
Early in the development of the TCP/IP protocols, little motivation existed for automating the configuration of devices using TCP/IP. Few computers used TCP/IP, and the computers that were networked weren't very portable. Perhaps most significantly, the majority of computers were shared among many users, and had a designated administrator who managed many operational details, including TCP/IP configuration.
Today, everything is different. An organization may have thousands-in some cases, tens of thousands-of computers on its internal network. Devices ranging from mainframes to desktop computers to PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) to embedded processors are all networked. Computers are highly mobile so that laptops, PDAs and similar devices may move between network segments many times during the course of a single day. And today's computers are not typically managed by a trained system administrator. Most computers are set up and installed by users who aren't familiar with (and who probably don't want to know about) the arcane details of the TCP/IP protocol suite.
To meet the demands of "plug-and-play" operation through automating the configuration of networked computers, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) developed DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). DHCP provides automated, managed configuration of computers and other devices using TCP/IP. Through DHCP, a network administrator can assign a network address, supply a subnet mask and a default router. DHCP is built around a client-server model, in which networked computers (the clients) contact a centralized configuration server for configuration parameters. The administrator supplies the server with a description of the network infrastructure and rules about how to assign addresses and other configuration parameters. The server interacts directly with clients, according to the rules provided by the administrator. Thus, the DHCP server acts as the network administrator's agent for managing the configurations of DHCP clients.
Contact
Administrative:
-
- Tucson AZ
- US 85701
-
Registrant:
- DHCP Handbook
-
- Chicago IL
- US 60657
