DHCP Primer Page 4 — Taking the Hardware Road To set up a DHCP server on your network, you need to make sure that you have a few things taken care of before you begin. First and most importantly, you need a basic TCP/IP network; no need to share your Internet connection if your computers can't talk to each other. You will also need a cable modem or DSL modem that translates your Internet connection into an ethernet connection (most cable or DSL hardware does this), which allows your broadband device to attach directly to your network rather than to a single computer. Most of the time, when we talk about "servers," we refer to dedicated computers that perform tasks for the network clients. DHCP software can be added to your existing file server, or you can purchase a piece of network hardware with built-in DHCP services. Few of us, however, run file server software in our homes, and I'm guessing that you'd rather not spend countless hours tweaking, compiling and recompiling applications on a command line interface. Thankfully, there is hope for us luddites. With the popularity of broadband technologies growing exponentially, many networking hardware vendors are selling all-in-one network hub/router/DHCP server units. These units usually have four ethernet ports (sometimes more) for your client PCs, one ethernet port for your cable or DSL modem and a built-in, hard-coded DHCP server that you can access through your Web browser. These boxes also kill two birds with one stone: The DHCP services are built into multi-port routers that eliminate the need for an extra piece of hardware (such as an ethernet hub) on your network. Although they're not high-performance workhorses, these little boxes have pretty blinkenlights and can give you more speed than you'll probably need. They offer browser-based setup utilities which make their DHCP settings easy to customize. The broadband sharing products from NETGEAR, D-Link, Linksys, and Hawking Technology are feature-rich and relatively inexpensive at $150 to $250 each. After you've set up your server and connected your broadband modem to your network, you next need to configure your client PCs. In Windows, just open your TCP/IP settings (located in the Network menu of your Windows control panel) and put a check next to "Obtain an IP address automatically" in the window that pops up. For other operating systems, just locate your network settings (in different places depending on your OS) and tell your computer to connect to a DHCP server when the machine boots up. These hardware boxes are not too finicky about which operating systems are connecting to them -- many software packages are -- so they are especially helpful if you are running several different OSes on your network. The browser interface included in these boxes make it simple to set up ports or to perform other network tasks (such as traffic logging) on specific ports. This can be helpful if you want to keep track of how many users are downloading your thoughtfully composed short stories, which of course scream brilliance and sincerity. To next page of DHCP To last page of DHCP Back to the HTML Home Page