Networking from Scratch (lesson 4) — the DHCP DORA four-packet exchange, lease and renewal mechanics, common DHCP options, the cross-subnet relay agent, and the ARP request/reply that turns an IP into the MAC the wire actually delivers to. Plus the symptoms of common failure modes.
Working reference for baseline Cisco IOS configuration. The hostname / domain / no ip domain-lookup trio (the latter saves 20 seconds per typo), Layer 3 interfaces with description / ip address / no shutdown, sub-interfaces for router-on-a-stick with encapsulation dot1Q including the native keyword, loopback interfaces for management and router-id, the Null0 bit-bucket, clock rate / bandwidth on serial, full DHCP server config (excluded-address, pool, default-router, dns-server, lease) and ip helper-address for relay, CDP enable/disable per-interface, MOTD/login/exec banners, clock + NTP, disabling the HTTP server, and the baseline template every new router should start from.
Learn how to install and configure a standalone DHCP server on Windows Server without Active Directory. This step-by-step guide covers verifying the static IP, installing the DHCP Server role via Server Manager, skipping AD authorization in the post-install wizard, creating a scope with IP range exclusions and lease duration, configuring scope options (gateway and DNS), activating the scope, verifying client IP assignment with ipconfig, viewing address leases, and creating reservations from the console.
Learn how to implement DHCP high availability on Windows Server using DHCP failover. This guide covers Load Balance and Hot Standby failover modes, preparing and authorizing the secondary DHCP server, running the Configure Failover Wizard to set relationship name, MCLT, mode, and shared secret, verifying scope synchronization on the secondary server, testing failover behavior, managing Replicate Scope and Replicate Relationship operations, and configuring firewall rules for TCP port 647.
Learn how to create and manage DHCP IP reservations on Windows Server. This guide covers opening the DHCP console, locating the target scope, creating a new reservation with a descriptive name, entering the device MAC address, selecting supported protocols (DHCP, BOOTP, or Both), verifying the reservation, and avoiding common pitfalls including exclusion conflicts, duplicate MAC addresses, and stale reservations after hardware changes.
Learn how to create and manage DHCP scopes on Windows Server. This step-by-step guide covers launching the New Scope Wizard, configuring the IP address range, setting exclusion ranges and lease duration, configuring scope options (gateway and DNS), activating the scope, viewing active leases, modifying scope properties post-creation, creating superscopes for multinet environments, and monitoring scope utilization statistics.
Learn how to implement and configure the DHCP Server role on Windows Server. This step-by-step guide covers installing the DHCP role, setting a static IP address, completing the Post-Installation Configuration Wizard, authorizing the server in Active Directory (including DHCP Administrators and DHCP Users security groups), verifying authorization with green arrows, and creating a scope to begin issuing IP addresses.
Learn how to implement and manage IPAM (IP Address Management) on Windows Server. This step-by-step guide covers installing the IPAM feature, provisioning with Group Policy-based provisioning, configuring server discovery, setting servers to Managed status, applying IPAM GPOs with Invoke-IpamGpoProvisioning, retrieving data, and using the IP address space, DHCP scope, and DNS zone management capabilities.
