Chapter 14. Automatic IP Setup: DHCP Essentials

Whether you're hooking up a two-computer intranet in your house to share an Internet connection or weaving a world-spanning Internet, you've got to solve two basic problems. First, every system on the network needs a unique IP address and requires configuration — it needs to know the address of its default router, what its domain name is, where the nearest DNS server is, and the like. Microsoft OS-based networks that are TCP/IP-based need the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to accomplish IP configuration.

This chapter will cover DHCP in an IPv4 environment. Server 2008 introduces some new DHCP topics that will be covered in the more advanced books in the Mastering Windows Server 2008 series.