Hiya,
I'm reading alien bob's wiki on networks and i'm getting very confused about where the dhcp server "lives".
I have a router, a wired desktop, and a wireless laptop. I'm trying to iron out some wireless problems and have decided to start from the very beginning. Could anyone please tell me where the dhcp server is located? Is it in my router or my laptop?? Alos, should i actually be using dhcp or assigning my laptop a static ip?

Sorry if these are really dumb questions,

mute

Almost all home routers supply a DHCP server. You can run a DHCP server in linux as well. If you haven't configured one, then the DHCP server that is working is in your router.

Static IP address means it is not assigned by a DHCP server, but is defined by the admin of the system. ie you key it in.

You can get kind of a 'static' address from some routers. There is a function in there that, you the admin tell the router for a specific MAC address, to always assign a specific IP address. Just to clarify, MAC stands for Media Access Control address. Sometimes this is referred to as a 'burned' address since the manufacturer of the card 'burns' the address in the card.

Home this clarifies your questions.

Depends on how you have your network setup. Most of the time by default it is the router. You can assign you laptop a static if you want, just make sure its not one that any other machine is using.

edit: camorri beat me to it

Thanks guys, i think this helps my tiny mind understand a bit more

Thanks again,

mute

mutexe, who is your ISP(internet service provider) and what type of internet service do you have? DSL, Dialup - probably DSL which is ethernet & or wireless that communicates with an internel card on your Computer. Your internet service provider sold you a modem/router so you can connect to the internet, that handles the DHCP protocol -> provides you with your IP address which probably changes from time to time automatically - this is called Dynamic IP address as opposed to a static one that doesn't change. DHCP stands for (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocols) your main host is your internet service provider(ISP). Although the main IP that provides your service connection is dynamic - u can still have static or non changing IP on your laptop and probably have one designated by your modem/router. You don't have to assign your laptop an address unless you are trying to setup your computers to communicate with one another as opposed to sharing the internet connection.

The most common setup has two DHCP servers -- one at your ISP's and one in your modem/router.

The ISP's DHCP server gives the modem/router its public IP address (as shown, for example by http://checkip.dyndns.org/) also known as the wide area network (WAN) IP address.

The modem/router's DHCP server gives devices on your local area network (LAN) their private IP addresses (usually in the 192.168.x.x range, as shown for example by the ifconfig command on Linux and the ipconfig command on Windows).

For small LANs, static IP addresses (that is not given out by DHCP) are simpler to set up and troubleshoot. But, if a laptop will be plugged into other LANs, DHCP is simpler because it saves having to reconfigure the computer with a new static address to suit each LAN it is plugged into.

Thank you all for your advice and help. Sorry i'm such a pain. You've all been very helpful. Last night I logged onto my router via my web broswer and checked to see if the router is set up to be a DHCP server. It was indeed! So I'm not going to assign a static ip to my laptop.

Thanks again for all your help, muchly appreciated!

mute