Perhaps this might help; with most GUI based OS, rather than entering IP/Subnet information in the IP configuration screen, you should find a selectable option box or radio button labeled DCHP. With Win95 thru WinXp, the radio button should be rightabove the where the IP addess would normally go. On a MacOS, above where the IP address would go, there is a combo box which lists- BOOTP, DHCP, MACIP, Manually Configured, when you click it. If none applies to you, I suggest leaving the IP setup section blank. Most modern OS will seek out a DHCP server if none was manually assigned to it. This applies even during initial install of most moderm OS's. Just make sure your DHCP server is locally accessible by the client (layer 2), otherwise the DHCP server will not hear the request and therefore do nothing but count time away.
PS: DHCP Servers are generally timesavers and your gains by implementing a DHCP server increases as more machine you put on the network. Also, a slew of information can be doled out by a DHCP server; i.e. gateway, timeserver, winserver, etc...
