7.11.08

DHCP

There are several technologies which we use in our day to day life as a techie but has been overlooked. One of those interesting technologies is DHCP. I hope many of us never might have heard of it. And a great percentage of the us must have talked about it but not remembered. A usual scenario in the office's conference rooms is "Hey that port is not working. Use this one, it has DHCP".

I hope many of us still smiling and must be thinking that 'Oh! I know this stuff. What's new about it". But do you know how it's work? Perhaps "NO" or may be "YES". But don't worry, carry on. I'll tell you how this technology works in very simple terms. You'll enjoy for sure.

First of all, full form of DHCP. It is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Huh! Boring. Wait, I'll try to make it interesting. Let's consider this scenario. A very good bank opens a separate help desk every time a new customer opens an account with the bank. As the number of customer grows, the need for separate help desk grows. With that, a demand of person for each help desk, demand of separate chair and table and so on so forth grows. The demand of resources keep growing with every new customer. Is it an acceptable situation. Surely "NO". So, what's the solution.

As an every intelligent person you must have the same idea in your mind which others have. Allocate a number of people in bank with separate resources. And when a person go to the bank send a person to the help desk which is free. With this we can save huge number of resources and utilize the resources in more efficient manner. There is no need of dedicated help desk for each customer.

Same logic applies to your machine. When you switch on your machine, it gets the IP address from a centralized server. Once you goes off, your ID address also and it may be assigned to another user. With this we can save the IP address which is a scarce resource. There is no need of assigning dedicated IP adress to your machine. Albeit in some scenario it is needed. This whole procedure of assigning and taking back of IP addresses is provided by DHCP. DHCP is the mastermind which enables a talk between your machine and centralized server.

I hope you have understood a basic concept of DHCP. With this sayonara. Probably I'll update you on messaging part of DHCP. So keep your eyes on this page.