Addressing Dynamic Hosts

Continuing the series on Internet history, fifteen years ago marked the creation of a standard for dynamically defining the network configuration of a machine. Building on earlier boot-strapping protocols, the dynamic host configuration protocol allowed machines to automatically obtain all of the configuration parameters needed to exchange packets with other hosts. With DHCP, it was no longer required to either manually configure machines with network configuration parameters or to manually configure networks to know about individual machines.

Adoption of DHCP took off because the protocol provided several key benefits to network administrators. In comparison, the older processes for configuring machines were labor intensive and error prone. DHCP provided a quick and cheap solution to several common problems.

1.
Administrators no longer had to spend large amounts of time configuring machines and dealing with misconfigured machines.
2.
Administrators had an easier way of managing IP addresses based on the peak demand for network use rather than the total number of machines that might need to be connected.
3.
Users didn't have to deal with a network configuration step that often led to support calls.
4.
DHCP only required a small number of servers to manage a large number of machines. The protocol worked across routers and relays.
5.
DHCP worked on networks that had a mix of dynamically and statically configured machines. It wasn't necessary to convert every machine at once.