DHCP

Short for DHCP "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol" , A protocol for assigning dynamic IP address to devices on a network. DHCP Serves a basic foundation of a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 network infrastructure. DHCP provides hosts with an Internet Protocol configuration needed to communicate with other computeres on the network.This configuration includes at a minimum an IP address and subnet mask, but it typically also includes a primary domain suffix a default gateway, preferred and altemate DNS servers, Wins servers and several other options. Without being able to provide clients with a reliable and automatic means of adopting such a configuration, you would quickly be overburdened as an adminsitrator with the task of managing these configurations manually

DHCP is an IP standard designed to reduce the complexity of administerign these address configuration. By issuing leases from a central database, DHCP automatically manages address assignment and configures other essential settings for your network clients