Just so you know, the binding on this book is poorly done. Opening up the book into a flat position causes the pages to pop out. This was a paperback book; now I have a "noback" book. One star off for the publisher.

The book is organized well, has an excellent index and provides detailed information from basic concepts through to advanced configurations, diagnostics and troubleshooting. I obtained this book because our organization had just deployed new DNS/DHCP appliances and there were problems with the DHCP failover configuration. This book provided as much detail as I could have asked for. It turned out that, (at the time of writing this review, Jan 2007) ISC DHCP failover is thoroughly broken. So although this book couldn't help me with our failover problem, I still recommend it for those who need a comprehensive DHCP reference.

I have been supporting and programming dhcp for many years and find the DHCP Handbook an excellent reference for DHCP operations on Linux.

If you have to design, configure, and manage a complex DHCP environment, this book is an outstanding resource. I've used the first edition (first printing ;-) for years, and am in the process of purchasing the second edition.

In that time I've configured or set configuration standards for dozens of DHCP servers running the ISC DHCP server and dozens more managed by Lucent's VitalQIP DHCP service. I have not personally configured or managed a Microsoft DHCP server, but I've walked many consultants through setting up DHCP servers from Microsoft, Cisco, Linksys, etc.

The value of this book is its depth. Protocols, design considerations, conditional leases, client identification, authentication, failover, client issues, OS considerations, Dynamic DNS integration, migration between static and dynamic environments, and just about everything else you'll run into are well covered.

The authors are actively involved in the development of DHCP standards and the ISC DHCP reference implementation, so it's difficult to find a more authoritative source. If you can't find your answer in the book, the authors are active on the DHCP mailing lists (http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/dhcp/dhcp-lists.php).

The wealth of information can be intimidating at first, but if you're dealing with a non-trivial environment it's worth it.