Multicast, Broadcast, and Unicast 97 Bootstrap protocol (BootP) A communications protocol that allows you to manage IP addressing usage centrally and to automate the assignment of logical addresses in an organization's network. Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) A communications pro- tocol, based on BootP, that allows you to manage IP addressing usage centrally and to automate the assignment of logical addresses in an organization's network. DHCP is responsible for handing out a subset of IP addresses that an administrator configures into what is called a scope. The scope contains the address space range that has been preconfigured to be issued to a requesting client. Uses the concept of a lease, which is an amount of time that a given IP address will be valid for a computer. DHCP supports reservations for machines that require a permanent IP address. Additional client configuration options are available with DHCP, for exam- ple, domain name service (DNS) address, Windows Internet name service (WINS) address, and default gateway.