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. DHCP for Windows 2000 is custom-designed for 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. Readers get detailed and explicit instructions for using Windows 2000 DHCP to manage their network IP configurations much more efficiently and effectively.They get 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 steps up to the plate with an analysis of the future direction of DHCP and Windows support for IPv6.

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.