Peter Hardy wrote:
O Plameras wrote:
For a long time, I had wanted to ask: why use DHCP in home networks
when one can use STATIC ip (using private network ip addresses)?
Is it not that DHCP is mainly used in situations with the following
combinations of circumstances ?
1. Networks with large numbers of workstations that are not
permanently on line (e.g. customers-workstations-of ISP that connect
only when
required).
3. There are more workstations (customers) than there are
public ip numbers available in an ISP.
These are both valid uses, although I'm curious to know what happened
to number 2. :-)
Sticky fingers.
4. Prevent customers of ISP from running WWW(FTP,MTA,etc) sites without
paying for fixed ip number(s).
Sorry? How does a dynamic address help here? Dynamic DNS services make
actually locating a service a snap. Only effective firewalling
prevents access to the service.
Clarification; prevent users from using the services for profit without
paying for
public ip addresses.
For users to access a WWW site say, 'www.domain.com.au'(FQDN) one must
have DNS entries in
one or more DNS servers with 'www.domain.com.au' with ip address like
203.7.132.1
or 'www.domain.com.au' with ip address like 203.7.132.0/32, etc.
Of course, users can put ip address instead of FQDN but it means that
each time your server
is disconnected and re-connected the users have to use different ip
addresses to access your
service. Not suitable for commercial operations.
If you have an alternative can you show us ?
But, to answer your question, DHCP makes networking easy. Routers come
preconfigured with working DHCP server. All the user has to know is to
plug in to the switch and configure their computer to find an IP
address automatically. Seeing as that's the default for Windows and
most Linux installers, home networking has become pretty much a
no-brainer unless you *want* to get your hands dirty in it.
OK for off-the-shelf routers.
What about Linux boxes configured as routers because one does
not wish to pay anymore for a black-box modem/router apart from
just ADSL modem ? One still has to configure DHCP.
O Plameras
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