Static IP distribution

Kris S. Amundson krisa at metstream.com
Sat Jan 27 00:37:20 UTC 2001


The topic of static IP address allocation came up today between a 
coworker and I, and we had differing ideas on how it should be done.

This would be static IP's for our broadband DSL users on non-portable 
upstream assigned IP space.

One method would be to have all our customers run a DHCP client, and 
those who wanted a static IP would get one reserved in the DHCP server 
via MAC address.

The other method would be to staticaly route their host IP (or a small 
range) down their pvc and exclude it from the DHCP server range.

Some of our arguments:

Managing end user MAC addresses for static IP users would be a big 
hassle.  Every time an end user changes a NIC, swaps a server out, buys 
a new computer, they would need to put a call in because their MAC had 
changed.

Having DHCP assigned statics allows us to change DNS server IP's on the 
fly with minimal implications.  It would also allow us to reassign new 
IP space without breaking everything (end user mail/dns/etc. would 
break).  Worst case senario is an IP subnet change would occur, the user 
would DHCP their new "static" IP breaking any server services, but would 
still be able to connect to the Internet.

There were other arguments about possible DHCP spoofing agains't static 
IP and such.





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