DHCP question

[julianf]

We run an NT 4 network with DHCP on a BDC. The DHCP has been running for a couple of years now and was configured to assign IP settings to clients who keep them with no expiry date.

We have 254 IP's avaiable, but DHCP says there is only about 30% left, even though we only have about 100 Workstations and 10 server. I noticed that the DHCP still relfects old computers that have been removed, but the Ip they used to have is still bound to them. Is this because our DHCP server was configured to assign clients with an IP with no expiry?

I would like clean up the DHCP scope so that only PC's that are active will be shown. (get rid of all the old PC's that dont exist) When a new PC gets put on the network, then get Ip addresses that are very high up the list, like *.*.*.253...etc..

I ghave thought about removing DHCP completely and re-installing with a fresh DB, but I'm not sure how this will effect the network.

Any info would be appreciated,

Julian

 

[Grenage]

If your computers aren't looking for things on other computers by IP address your fine to redo it like you say, we have our set so that the address timeout isnt very long.

 

[ShackDaddy]

You should just configure a 3-day lease time, and in a week, your database will only have active clients in it. Then you could change the lease time to whatever you want. This would be the cleanest way to go about it.

Rebuilding the server has more potential for a mess, unless you can guarantee that all 110 of your clients will be rebooted. It would be easy to wind up with a conflict, since the old scope records would no longer exist.

ShackDaddy

 

[BLawson]

Why not just configure a 3 day lease time in the scope properties and manually delete the old, unused leases in the active leases window?

I don't think rebuilding the server is the way to go. It's a bit drastic just to clean up junk leases.

 

[julianf]

Thanks guys,

I have changed the lease period to 3 days....will see what that does.

Regards,

Julian