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How does a Device Obtain an IP Address and
Subnet Mask?
There are three different ways to obtain an IP address and the
subnet mask. These are:
■
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Addressing
■
Static Addressing
■
Automatic Addressing (Auto-IP Addressing)
DHCP Addressing
If your network contains a DHCP server, the Network Storage
Server will obtain an IP address and subnet mask automatically.
DHCP assigns a temporary IP address and subnet mask which
gets reallocated once you disconnect from the network.
DHCP will work on any client Operating System such as
Windows
®
95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0. Also, using
DHCP means that the same IP address and subnet mask will
never be duplicated for devices on the network. DHCP is
particularly useful for networks with large numbers of users on
them.
Static Addressing
You must enter an IP Address and the subnet mask manually on
every device. Using a static IP and subnet mask means the
address is permanently fixed.
Auto-IP Addressing
Network devices use automatic IP addressing if they are
configured to acquire an address using DHCP but are unable to
contact a DHCP server. Automatic IP addressing is a scheme
where devices allocate themselves an IP address at random from
the industry standard subnet of 169.254.x.x (with a subnet mask
of 255.255.0.0). If two devices allocate themselves the same
address, the conflict is detected and one of the devices allocates
itself a new address.
Automatic IP addressing support was introduced by Microsoft in
the Windows 98 operating system and is also supported in
Windows 2000.
