Continuing our series on learning IT basics, today we're going to show you how to setup DHCP on Windows Server 2008 instead of using it on a router.

Note: this is part of our ongoing series teaching IT administration basics, and might not apply to everybody.

This guide assumes that you have Server 2008 up and running on a machine--if you don’t, you should check out our guide on how to install it. You should also have set a static IP address on the server before continuing.

To get started, fire up the Server Manager, right click on roles, and then select add roles.

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You will be prompted with the normal “Before You Begin” screen, and after clicking Next you'll be able to choose DHCP Server.

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Next you'll want to select the network connection to bind the DHCP protocol to.

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Put in the IP address of your DNS Server, which in this case is the same machine--but be careful not to put the loopback address (127.0.0.1) as this will be the address your clients will go to for name resolution.

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Click next again to skip the WINS setup, this will bring you to creating a DHCP Scope, where you can click the Add button.

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Now you need to:

  • Give your scope a name
  • Enter the first address that you want available to clients to use
  • Enter the last address that you want available to clients to use
  • Enter the subnet mask (usually 255.255.255.0)
  • Enter the IP address of your default gateway (usually your router IP at .1)
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Once you have clicked on OK, you can click next 4 times to get to the confirmation screen where you can finally click install.

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Once the installation is complete your DHCP will be functioning, and you can start managing your DHCP server right away.

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