Product Description

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is an open standard Internet protocol used to allocate and manage IP addresses dynamically. Before DHCP came along, administrators had to manually configure each host on a network with an IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Maintaining the changes and the associated logs took a tremendous amount of time and was prone to error. DHCP uses a client/server model in which the system updates and maintains the network information dynamically. Windows 2000 provides enhanced DHCP client-server support. This text is aimed at system administrators who are responsible for configuring and maintaining networks with Windows 2000 servers. It explains the DHCP protocol and how to install and manage DHCP on both servers and clients - including client platforms other than Windows 2000. The text includes detailed and explicit instructions for using Windows 2000 DHCP to manage network IP configurations more efficiently and effectively. It provides background information for using DHCP in general, plus complete information about the Windows 2000 use of DHCP. For those interested in what's on the horizon, the author provides an analysis of the future direction of DHCP and Windows support for IPv6.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1065112 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
People don't sit at desks in offices the way they used to, and that's why the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) makes sense: it allows efficient allocation of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other configuration values to a shifting pool of networked devices. DHCP for Windows 2000 explains how Windows 2000 implements the eminently handy protocol, and shows how to make administrative decisions about how your network provides DHCP services.

The book does a great job of explaining what goes on behind the scenes, even when Windows 2000 tries to sugarcoat DHCP and related functions with wizard interfaces. Each prompted-for value and how it relates to the larger configuration is explained, along with how to do the same configurations without the wizards, plus comprehensive lists of legal options and parameters. Readers will appreciate the care the book takes in framing how DHCP fits into the rest of the Windows 2000 networking architecture, especially Domain Name Service (DNS) and the server-clustering services. References to standards documents make additional research easy. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), as implemented by Microsoft Windows 2000 on the server side and other Microsoft operating systems (including MS-DOS) on the client side. Chapters address (pun intended) basic configuration scenarios, as well as scopes, superscopes, multihomed DHCP servers, and clustering. For those for whom DHCP won't do, there's a section on multicast configuration with Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) under Windows 2000.

Review
'Overall this is an excellently researched and written guide to administering DHCP in a Windows 2000 environment. Easy to read and follow, it should be on the bookshelf of every Windows 2000 administrator.' PING, September 2001 'Whether you are an experienced network administrator, or are just starting out, DHCP for Windows 2000 gives you the necessary information to manage and configure IP addresses effectively.' Freelance Informer, March 23rd 2001

About the Author
Neall Alcott has been designing, building, and managing networks for the past 8 years. He is also an MCT who has been training students in the Delaware Valley for the past 4 years. Currently, he is a Senior Systems Engineer for Visalign LLC, a professional services firm specializing in web solutions, web infrastructure, and managed services for enterprise-wide clients in the pharmaceutical, financial services, power/utility, entertainment/media, emerging technology/growth, and state and local government industries. Neall's current role at Visalign is as an eBusiness Infrastructure Architect, planning and designing server architectures using Microsoft's .NET platform. Previously, Neall was responsible for overseeing the Intel platform infrastructure at one client's North American headquarters, as well as 16 remote sites across the United States.

Customer Reviews

Exhaustive guide to the DHCP protocol
This is a really quite excellent guide to the DHCP protocol. It starts off with an examination of the protocol itself at the bits-on-the-wire level. This section is so thorough that you could use it to write your own DHCP implementation. It then goes on to discuss planning your DHCP infrastructure, setup and administration of Microsoft's DHCP implementation, client connection (another example of the book's thoroughness: it even tells you how to set up DOS clients, on the off-chance that you still have some DOS machines on the network), clustering , integration with DNS and troubleshooting. Why four stars? I'm not entirely persuaded that DHCP deserved a book to itself. Anyway, if you need THE definitive DHCP reference, you could do worse than buy this book.