Preparing to use DHCP for IP Address

This process can range from very simple to quite time consuming depending on the number of clients you have.

This process essentially breaks down into 2 steps:
1. Create and configure your DHCP server.
2. Reconfigure clients to obtain their IP addresses automatically.

Key points about DHCP:
1. You can not issue addresses dynamically that have already been issued statically (DHCP will issue any address that is placed in its scope, but if the address has already been issued statically, you will end up with IP conflicts).
2. The subnet mask cannot be changed once a scope has been created. If the subnet mask is incorrect, you must delete and recreate the scope to correct it.
3. As a minimum (dependent on your network design, of course), you probably need to include the following scope options:
003 - Router (this is the Default Gateway or how your clients get to the Internet)
006 - DNS servers (either yours or your ISPs - or both) (this could be considered the same as Primary and Alternate DNS when using static IP addresses).
044 - WINS/NBNS servers
046 - WINS/NBT Node Type - use 0x8

The DHCP tool in WinNT is all you need to accomplish the above.

Unfortunately, you will need to go to each client to change them to "Obtain an IP address automatically". I'm not aware of any tool you can use to change this remotely or automatically at log-on. Maybe others are aware of something you can use.