Java Glossary : DHCP

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DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol: a technique used in Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP for dynamically assigning IP numbers. A DHCP server assigns IP numbers for a temporary period. They also automatically assign some DNS servers, telling you the IPs to use. The magic of DHCP is that workstations don't need to know the IP of the DHCP server to get started. PPP has a similar mechanism to dynamically assign IP numbers for dial up calls. DHCP is commonly used for 24/7 cable modem access. DHCP is primarily for convenience rather than to allow IPs to change frequently. With DHCP, nobody has to assign numbers to individual workstations and configure them individually. All machines are set to DHCP IP assignment. They automatically find themselves a free IP when they are turned on, with the help of a DHCP server. The secondary reason for using DHCP is to make maximal use of a small pool of IP numbers when you have more users than IPs available.

DHCP servers in my experience tend to be somewhat flaky. You can cheat and set the IP it keeps giving you as a permanent IP. If you don that, you must also manually configure some DNS server IPs. If anything goes wrong, revert to DHCP, reboot, and pray the DHCP servers are up.

You can also clear its pea brain with:

IPCONFIG /release
IPCONFIG /renew

24/7 ¤ DNS ¤ DynDNS: three free services of interest to people who host webservers on their home machines ¤ IP ¤ PPP

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