[Techtalk] DHCP question maybe dns

[Travis Casey]

On Friday 12 April 2002 3:15, Magni Onsoien wrote:

> I don't think it would be a problem to assign one of these dynamic
> addresses as static address. The dhcp-server always checks if the
> address is in use or reserved, and if it is, it won't be used.
> Another thing is that it will probably be more tidy to have one address
> space for static IPs and one for dynamic, then you can always see pretty
> fast what kind of client that has a particular address.

Something we like to do where I work is use DHCP reservations instead of 
giving out static IPs.  There's a couple of nice things about doing it this 
way:

1 - There's no need to change the settings on the user's computer; we just
    need to find out the MAC to make the reservation.  This saves our field
    guys time, since they don't have to go to that computer and change
    the settings for the user.

    (Or, alternatively, we don't have to try to walk the user through 
    changing it him/herself over the phone.)

2 - Most of the user's machines are running Windows, which requires you to
    also statically configure the DNS info, default router, netmask, etc.
    if you give it a static IP.  (Haven't used DHCP on other OSes to know
    if they'll let you "split" things.)  Using a DHCP reservation lets the
    user automagically get changes to all those things, where a static IP
    would mean manual changes whenever any of those change.

3 - The DHCP configuration program and server we're using have a space for 
    a comment -- there, we record *why* this machine has a reservation.
    With us being lazy sysadmin types, being able to put in that comment
    while configuring it makes it much more likely that the reason will
    actually get recorded.  :-)

4 - For folks who are using laptops and need a set IP when they're at the
    office for some reason (e.g., need to be able to get out to things
    we don't allow most users to get to), a DHCP reservation means that 
    they don't have to switch between using DHCP when they're using the
    laptop elsewhere, and a static setup when they're using it at the 
    office.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_     Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
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