Discussion on:

DHCP from the ground up

DHCP article: too Microsoft-centric: The article is OK for a Microsoft NT only shop. I saw no discussion of alternatives to DHCP, like BOOTP (which Microsoft does not support). I saw no discussion of using anything other than NT as a server. for example, I run a DHCP server on a 486 server running Linux and SAMBA. I also saw no discussion of how to configure clients, Microsoft or other operating systems.

This is the age of the Internet and interconnectivity, there are no Microsoft only shopsany more. Get with it.

Let me tell you. With you in the audience, I'd be too scared to write an article myself. If my standards didn't live up to your personal views, you'd shoot holes through me the way you did the poor guy who wrote this article.

Lighten up, and don't take yourself too seriously. Not every hates Microsoft products.


Fresno Joe

Although the first poster does have a valid point, but if I had to look into my crystal ball my guess would be that the author was trying to focus on Microsoft's DHCP implementation efforts. You have to admit that they are far enhanced from NT4's offering with many new configuration options (and still supporting bootstrap (BOOTP) clients). So would you like to slap the author on the wrist for not titling his document clearly ??
Michael Runza CCA

too MS centric: i agree with ccurley;s post above.. the moment i read the article, i can smell the M$-ness. well there are more and more experimental user using linux cause they can't afford NT, so it would be nice if u cover the linux side of it too.

Totally Free DHCP: In the article (which I agree is too Microsoft specific) it is suggested to use 2 DHCP servers. This article assumes everyone has at least 2 NT servers running in their network to install the DHCP service on. I agree DHCP needs very little processing power. I also agree with ccurley. Get out a couple of those 486 PC's you were going to throw away (because they can't run NT) and load Linux on them. (Free OS) + (Free PC) = Free DHCP.

and now from someone who likes Microsoft...: I just wanted to add a comment to balance out the MS bashing. I thought the article was excellent. I wish I could have read a similar article 8 or 9 months ago when I was going through my first setups of DHCP services on NT. No...it was not a nightmare, but it would have been nice to have had the additional info. And to address a previous comment about there being no Microsoft-only shops anymore...just because yours is diversified (or totally MS-free), don't assume everyone else is. I can name more MS-only sites than I can mixed environments. And this includes sites from the low end (20-50 users) all the way to the other extreme (thousands of end users). If someone wants to do an articlefocusing on DHCP services from a LINUX perspective...great. I encourage it and I'll most definitely read it. But please don't be too critical of an otherwise good article just because it doesn't answer every question for every network.

Daniel

This was an extremely well written article and yes I live in a mixed enviroment! I am in the proccess of redoing our entire TCP/IP network (with Netware 4.11 and NT and 2000 servers).

DHCP on a unix platform will enable you to do so much more than Microsoft's version of DHCP (like send netware tree info to the client)...

Novell DHCP: Yes,it is MS specific, a more general discussion would be better...or perhaps an overview of the differences between Novell's fairly user friendly version and the MS complexity. There are no (and probably never were) any MS only shops and Novell 5 os really doesn't care where it gets it's numbers from, but the managers sure do!

Reply to curley and zeroverbearing: Get over it! The name of this forum after all, is WINDOWS 9x/NT/2000 tips, right?
You want DHCP tips for Novell and Linux?
Go check out THEIR tips forums!

Good article for Beginning DHCP Users: I thought the article was pretty good. It could be more in-depth for more experienced users though. As for Linux and Novell, it's good to know but the numbers don't lie. Microsoft (especially NT/2000) is still the top dog in that arena, like it or not.

Good acticale for beginners, I hope you continue it and tell folks how to use DHCP to load Gateways, routers and the like. Also you might take it one step further and tell folks how RRAS gets its dynamical assigned TCP/Ip numbers.

This is a very interesting article. It answered a great many questions regarding the connection to the ISP here.

On several occasions it was necessary to log off and then log back onto the ISP because of a poor connection. Instead of logging onto the ISP at 45,333 bps, sometimes it would only connect at 33,000 bps.

Upon calling Tech Support at the ISP, the instructions were to log off and then log back onto the net whenever that circumstance arose.

Now this is a great method of determining what is really occurring when the net appears to be loading pages very slowly.

In addition, no one ever mentioned the winipcfg.exe command anywhere in the manuals here. So thank you for your help in this sometimes frustrating problem.

The "three" days lease duration you mentioned in your article, I think, has changed to "eight" days for Win2K Servers.

W/a finite number of addresses and a seemingly infinite number of IP address requests, DHCP has been the only real solution to an otherwise limiting situation. Do you have any information about IP version 5 (including when it's to be released)? I understand that it's supposed to contain four 32-bit segments which, if true, would blow the ceiling away on available addresses. How do you think this will effect DHCP use?

Very good and informative article.


Fresno Joe