Here is a list of typical DHCP server scope options that I usually configure on the Windows DHCP server.
003 Routers
006 DNS Servers
015 DNS Domain Name
249 Classless Static Routes
The DCHP server automatically assigns unique IP addresses to any computer that wishes to connect to the LAN. Before DHCP came along the network administrator has to configure static IP on each computer, server and printer. This was fine as long as the network was small, but can you imagine manually assigning IP addresses to hundreds of network resources. The other week I met up with a former colleague for lunch and I was shocked to learn that the health care unit that he worked for was still assigning IPs manually. Perhaps there is a good reason for this, but my firend was not able to tell me why.
When configuring the DHCP server you must add the scope option # 003 for Router. This is the gateway IP address for your LAN. The gateway is required for the computers on the LAN to communicate with external resources, typically the internet. It is possible to have multiple gateways, such as a redundant gateway route.
Option # 006 DNS Server, you got to have this as well. Domain Name System Server resolves host/domain names to an IP address. When you enter www.gamescheat.ca in your browser, your computer queries the DNS server which then responds with the IP address of the website, for example IP address 10.10.11.211. It would be very hard for you to remember the IP address of all the websites on the internet, hence the need for DNS server.
Option # 015 DNS Domain Name, if your company has a domain name such as gamescheat.ca, then this is where you would configure this.
Option # 249 Classless Static Routes, this is very helpful when you have multiple routes on the network that is handled by more than one different gateways. This is different from the default route of 0.0.0.0 with a mask of 0.0.0.0, you only need option 003 for default route. With Classless Static Routes you can define a subnet mask, unlike the default route. For example 10.11.21.0 mask 255.255.255.0 to 10.11.21.10.
