On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Sasha Oblak wrote:
> I am in the process of configuring my newly installed Red Hat Linux 5.1.
> I am having a few difficulties, but nothing too bad. For the ethernet
> configuration, what should I choose DHCP, BOOTP, or none? I choose DHCP,
> but I have no idea what it does.
DHCP is probably the best thing to use if you can easily get it to work.
At least, that's what CAs are supposed to advise you. :) By policy, people
"should" be using DHCP to keep things simple. (At least, that's my
understanding of the policy; it's unofficial, of course.)
On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Michael Osier wrote:
> I use bootp and hard code the address on my machine
Isn't this inconsistent? BootP is a protocol that allows your machine to
automatically configure its address (based on information it receives from
a server); this is the opposite of hard-coding an address.
DHCP, just for anyone who's interested, is an extension of BootP that
allows computers to be configured "dynamically" (the "D" in DHCP stands
for dynamic). The basic difference between BootP and DHCP is that BootP
will always (unless manually reconfigured) give the same address to the
same network device, whereas DHCP can choose on the spot what address to
vend out.
On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Ken Lai wrote:
> You're assigned a (new) permanent IP address every year.
Basically, you're given something like 8-hour leases for a particular IP
address, and under normal circumstances, the DHCP server will gleefully
renew your lease (for the same address) when (or, strictly, according to
the protocol, *before*) your lease expires. So the address should appear
to be permanent for most purposes.
But there still might be advantages to using DHCP. If you have a laptop
and visit another network segment, for example, you'll need to use a
different IP address. And there might be other circumstances where DHCP
might be easier; for instance, your assigned address might conceivably
need to change for some reason (though this late in the year, I don't
think that's too likely).
> You can pick a computer name, and your address will be
> comp_name.XX.yale.edu where XX is your residential college initials.
Also, "hgs" for our grad-student friends (even if they live in HHH!) or
"oldcampus" for people living on Old Campus. People on Old Campus can
choose between their two-letter college abbreviation and
oldcampus.yale.edu.
Hope that helps,
Shawn