DHCP is a way to manage your internal, private Internet.
Each of your computers needs its own IP address. In my case, they all have to
be in the range
10.10.10.0 through
10.10.10.255
Most other people use the addresses
192.168.1.0 through
192.168.1.255, I just wanted to be different.
If two different computers have the same IP address, they step on each other's feet and it doesn't work. Each needs a different IP address.
If your machine is set to DHCP (or "get address from server"), then when it boots up, it talks to a special DHCP server computer on your local network. My router is a DHCP server on top of everything else, and it's on all of the time. This DHCP server, will hand out 10.10.10.100 to the first computer that boots up in the morning. It will hand out 10.10.10.101 to the second machine that boots up in the morning. Since I only have a few computers in the office, it only gets to maybe 103 or something when I start up several computers.
Go back to Allan's Help Desk.