Introducing DHCP

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol): The host is simply a server, which means that the host computer is responsible for providing a service. The service could be of any kind. For example, a web server is responsible for hosting the files required for viewing a website. Again, the server implements the necessary communication protocols to allow many players to play against each other. A computer or application that uses the services offered by a server is called a client. Now you might know that every computer on the Internet is identified by a unique address known as the IP address.

A DHCP server is responsible for allocating such IP addresses to all the nodes in a network, and keeping track of the allocated addresses. In DHCP, dynamic means constantly changing, host means server, configuration refers to configuring your network settings, and protocol means a set of rules on how to do things. Described next is the procedure for the allocation of IP addresses by a...