5/3/2016

21.1.WhyUseDHCP?

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21.1.Why Use DHCP?

DHCPisusefulforautomaticconfigurationofclientnetworkinterfaces.Whenconfiguringtheclient
system,theadministratorchoosesDHCPinsteadofspecifyinganIPaddress,netmask,gateway,orDNS
servers.TheclientretrievesthisinformationfromtheDHCPserver.DHCPisalsousefulifan
administratorwantstochangetheIPaddressesofalargenumberofsystems.Insteadofreconfiguring
allthesystems,hecanjusteditoneDHCPconfigurationfileontheserverforthenewsetofIP
addresses.IftheDNSserversforanorganizationchanges,thechangesaremadeontheDHCPserver,
notontheDHCPclients.Whentheadministratorrestartsthenetworkorrebootstheclients,the
changeswillgointoeffect.
IfanorganizationhasafunctionalDHCPserverproperlyconnectedtoanetwork,laptopsandother
mobilecomputeruserscanmovethesedevicesfromofficetooffice.

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21.2.ConfiguringaDHCPServer

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