TechRepublic|Forums|Networks

Networks

General discussion

  • Creator
    Topic
  • February 6, 2003 at 10:29 pm #2300118

    Static or DHCP ?

    Locked

    by dennisbv · about 21 years, 2 months ago

    I Administer a small network, about 60 nodes. Win2k servers and win 95-2k clients. Now we are using static IPs and I am wondering if DHCP would be a better way?

    Topic is locked This conversation is currently closed to new comments.
  • Creator
    Topic

All Comments

  • Author
    Replies
    • February 6, 2003 at 11:17 pm #3469109

      Static or DHCP ?

      by robertp · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Static or DHCP ?

      Yes, use DHCP. I also have a small network and used static IP’s but after my ISP changed DNS server IP’s and I had to go around and change all the PC’s with internet access I felt it was easier to just setup DHCP and never have to worry about those repeatative tasks again.

      bob

    • February 6, 2003 at 11:33 pm #3469102

      Static or DHCP ?

      by sgt_shultz · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Static or DHCP ?

      I vote for DHCP. but i would ‘preset’ the ip addresses of print servers by ‘preassigning’ their Mac addresses to an ip address in the DHCP server. that way, their ip address can’t change on you…that is the way you can have your cake (dhcp) and eatit too (have ‘static’ ip’s where you want ’em)…
      and of course, document this and stick a copy under/inside the dhcp server, imho…

    • February 6, 2003 at 11:40 pm #3469096

      Static or DHCP ?

      by mike jones · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Static or DHCP ?

      Definetly DHCP.

      You can reserve a range of addresses for the servers and printers which need static addresses.

      Also, if a PC need a static address for whatever reason, as mentioned in an earlier answer, you can assign a Mac Address against an IP Address and that Mac Address will always receive that IP.

      The main benefit of DHCP is down to simpler administration of the IP addresses. Static is ok if you only have a handful of clients but after that it gets unwieldly.

    • February 7, 2003 at 12:27 am #3469049

      Static or DHCP ?

      by timwalsh · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Static or DHCP ?

      From the standpoint of administration of your network, DHCP (if properly configured) is the way to go as your network grows.

      As mentioned in other answers, once your network grows beyond a certain size (about 10 nodes), making any change to your DNS structure leads to the repetitive (and boring) task of updating all your workstations. Having to manually accomplish this update can of course lead to errors.

      With DHCP, you make the change once (hopefully correctly), and it is applied to allnodes that receive their IP addresses from DHCP.

      Their are certain circumstances that may REQUIRE that some or all of your workstations have static IPs. In this event, you can still use DHCP by setting up reservations (as suggested in other answers). This will essentially assign a fixed IP address while still providing you the benefits of DHCP. A reservation assigns a specific IP address to a specific MAC address. When a DHCP client makes a request for an IP address, DHCP will first search its reservation table to see if that client’s MAC address has a reserved IP address.

      Hope this helps.

    • February 7, 2003 at 4:17 am #3468944

      Static or DHCP ?

      by dennisbv · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Static or DHCP ?

      This question was closed by the author

  • Author
    Replies
Viewing 4 reply threads