[X4U] Home Networking Questions ( Static IP verses DHCP)

[David Ledger]

>From: Eugene Lee <list-themacintoshguy at fsck.net>
>On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 12:37:48PM -0500, James Rice wrote:
>: I know the functions of DHCP.  (I'm a network/system admin of a mixed
>: Irix/Mac/Linux/Wintel shop, four physical locations).  As far as a
>: firewall assigned DMZ goes, we use a double firewall DMZ with the two
>: firewalls being from a different vendor with  a different OS (if they
>: crack the first one, they have access to the DMZ only but they will need
>: to use an different set of tools to crack the second to get to the LAN)
>: but our network is entirely set up static except for 20 addresses in the
>: high end of our subnets for notebook/tablets that move from office to
>: office.  I feel that most network admin tasks are easier on a mixed
>: network if the address scheme is static.  There is a certain amount of
>: record keeping involved to avoid IP conflicts, but it's a small price to
>: pay.  I just can't see the advantage of having a  DHCP client running on
>: a machine with a manually assigned address.
>
>Ummm, because DHCP does more than assign an IP address.  And so it's the
>other stuff that may change.  Given, the other stuff isn't supposed to
>change that often.  So some advantages are at best small.  But there are
>still needs for manual allocation in environments that strongly prefer
>static IP addresses (some IPsec and VPN implementations).  Better to ask,
>does any node on your network require an unchanging IP address?
>
>: This is of course on a small network of four class C subnets routed into
>: a small WAN.  If I had a class A or even a B, the sheer overhead of
>: recordkeeping would make DHCP a must.  We also don't netboot anything,
>: do not use NIS and only rarely use tftp so some of the more advanced
>: features of DHCP aren't needed in our little corner of the world.
>
>Agreed, DHCP is overkill for most shops.

The easiest setup I've had is to get the router to do DHCP with fixed 
MAC -> IP mapping for the normal hosts.  It's all set up in one 
place, and all hosts just need to be set to use DHCP.  My first SMC 
Barricade did this fine.  The one that replaced it when the first one 
cooked has that facility, and others, removed :-(
Going back to putting each host's details in its Network Prefs for 
each Location is prone to errors as I use 2 ISPs, cheap evenings & 
weekends/full price, wireless/wired for 2 laptops, modem on 
router/internal modem ... .  If we could put the details in a conf 
file rather than have to use a GUI ...

David


-- 
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
Chair of HPUX SysAdmin SIG of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
dledger at ivdcs.co.uk (also dledger at ivdcs.demon.co.uk)
www.ivdcs.co.uk