DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) simplifies the assignment of IP addresses on a network. What is needed is to at least one DHCP server. Distributes IP addresses to the different clients.
On the server side, an address space is defined. IP addresses from this pool are allocated to the clients when they ask the DHCP server for it. For this to happen, the network configuration of the client must be set accordingly. This is now standard on operating systems such as Linux and Windows is the case, so that an administrator does not have to worry about the settings of the client.
A DHCP server automatically, manually or dynamically assigns IP addresses. Automatically addresses can be assigned only once. It receives a client that is identified by the MAC address of its network interface, at first logon the network a free IP address. Which is bound to the MAC address, and the client gets it in the future at each login. In contrast, dynamically distributed IP addresses are cashed by the server after a certain time.
The latter method should always be used in the larger network, otherwise the IP addresses could be almost there. Caution: This can happen even in smaller networks, if one uses often times virtual environments such as VMware Workstation, Parallels Desktop or Citrix XenServer. These generate multiple virtual network interfaces depending on configuration. The most cumbersome method, but certainly is used, is the manual assignment of IP addresses. Here you can assign a specific address one or more clients an administrator - such as a router or a network printer.
The request from the client by means of broadcast. Thus, to test how many DHCP servers exist on the network. The contacted server is sent in response a suggested configuration. If the client accepts this, it sends a DHCP request (DHCP request). The server in turn sends the IP address and the required parameters. At the end of the session, the client sends a release back to the server and reports so that the IP address is no longer needed (DHCP Release).
