As it has been mentioned in an earlier article, in a local/private network all the devices have IP addresses assigned to them by way of which they are able to communicate with other devices on the network. One way of assigning IP addresses to devices may be by doing it manually by the system/network administrator when the devices are installed. This helps when the number of devices in the network are few and there is no addition/removal of devices from the network. But when the number of devices is large, it will be difficult for the system/network administrator to do configuration on all devices manually. Also, it will be tiresome to keep a record of IP addresses that are not being used due to deletion of devices from the network. To solve this, DHCP exits.
In a network there will be a DHCP server which will keep a record of the total IP addresses as well as how many of them are available. Thus, whenever a new device is added to the network, it will contact the DHCP server and ask for an IP address to be alloted to it. The DHCP server will look for an available IP address, allot it to the device and remove it from the list of available addresses. Internally, the DHCP associates the newly alloted IP address with the MAC address of the device. Then the device may start communication with other devices on the network.
For Wikipedia entry on DHCP, click here.
For Wikipedia entry on Internet, click here.
For more posts on Internet, click here.
For more posts in The Cyber Cops project, click here.