Running a DHCP Server
-
Is there a reason I should be using the DHCP Server in OSX Server instead of allowing a Airport Extreme to do that? Is there a benefit using one over the other?
-
I'm hoping others will jump in and add more here. The DHCP Server on both are probably comparable at their basic level of dynamic ip addressing. Normally, with DHCP servers on the wireless router, it's designed for a small office / home office environment. DHCP on servers are designed to be configureable and managed rather than just functional.
-
Hi Ryan,
With server based DHCP you should have access to a lot more DHCP server and scope options (host settings) than you will with the SOHO equipment. You can set items like time servers, Log servers or even tftp server info (DHCP option 160) for things like IP phone desk sets.
So if you only have a few hosts that just need basic DHCP you should be fine with the airport. But if you need to configure advanced DHCP options on your hosts or have a large number of hosts I would move to the server.
-
The other big advantage of DHCP Server is that it remembers the addresses it assigned across reboots. Wireless routers like Airport will do some kind of discovery when they are booted so they know what addresses not to offer, but they won't be able to reclaim addresses for devices that are later removed from the network. This works fine on a small network with plenty of addresses, but you'll want something more robust for larger or very dynamic networks.
Of course, you have to use a full-fledged DHCP server to assign addresses to multiple subnets. Wireless routers don't support that.
-
@Rick-Sidwell said:
Of course, you have to use a full-fledged DHCP server to assign addresses to multiple subnets. Wireless routers don't support that.
Depends. If you use multiple SSIDs you can dynamically address according to what SSID a user connected on. I know more expensive SoHo all inclusive routers do this. Airports offer a guest network which will hand out different subnets accordingly but then you are limited to 2 subnets and the rules of the guest network are set by apple.
