On 2 Nov 2006 16:18:47 -0800,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Edward Jaffe) wrote:
>We're a fairly small shop "toying" with the idea of implementing DHCP.
>I'm not uncomfortable with the static IP network we have now. But, I
>agree DHCP would be "nice". There seem to be some challenges associated
>with it, not the least of which is establishing DDNS.
IMHO, if you decide to implement DHCP, then you're going to need DDNS,
as well. If you can't access specific systems by a predictable
address, you're going to need a predictable name!
I work in a small shop, too. When I started, we had a small handful of
systems with fixed IP addresses. A few years ago, as we started adding
boxes to our network, we setup DHCP. It was a little rough at first,
because we were using the DHCP server on AIX; configuring DHPCSD is a
little cryptic and non-intuitive at first. But we got over that hurdle
and DHCP has been working fine ever since. Earlier this year I bit the
bullet and setup a Win2003 Server box as a Domain Controller,
including DHCP and DDNS. I thought both were easy to configure and
administer.
We still have most of our systems configured with static IP addresses,
mostly because of inertia. We do have a couple of systems that are
configured via DHPC, where the server hands out fixed addresses based
on the MAC address of the client. DHCP has also been great for my
notebook: switching it between home and office is just a matter of
plugging in the LAN cable. (I run a Netgear broadband router with
built-in DHCP server at home.)
Chris Craddock made the point that "Having to hard-code a MAC address
isn't any easier than doing static IP.". That's true at one level, but
there are a lot of client TCP/IP configuration settings (DNS server
addresses, gateway / default router addresses and so forth) that can
be defined in the server and automatically picked up by the client. I
can see that saving a lot of administrative headaches in a large
environment.
A couple of things to watch out for, though:
If your shop has "net-nanny" software that performs filtering or
access control based on client IP address, you might have occasional
surprises if the DHCP server really is handing out dynamic addresses.
You'll recognize this situation when the big boss calls up one day,
angry because he/she can't get to their favorite web site! (Because
they got assigned the IP address once used by the shop goof-off.)
Another consideration: DHCP is considered a "transport layer" protocol
(I think), rather than an IP protocol. This could be an issue if your
shop has multiple network segments. Let's say you have an Ethernet and
a Token-Ring in your shop, and you want DHCP available on both
networks. You might need to run a DHCP server on each LAN, or make
sure that your bridge between the two networks knows how to forward
DHCP traffic between the networks.
Eric
--
Eric Chevalier E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: www.tulsagrammer.com
Is that call really worth your child's life? HANG UP AND DRIVE!
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