can dhcp clients contact a specific dhcp server perhaps by IP?

[Walter Tautz]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002 pll at lanminds.com wrote:

> 
> In a message dated: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 19:07:52 EDT
> Walter Tautz said:
> 
> >I am trying to setup a server to configure a bunch of machine on a subnet
> >which is attached to a switch that forwards dhcp requests out of the subnet.
> >I don't have control over this behaviour so is there `non-broadcasat' mode
> >that would enable clients to contact a specific server, one that may not be
> >on the same subnet? I'm not too familiar with the setup of dhcp servers...
> 
> Let me see if I understand you.  Your systems are on some subnet, for 
> which the switch is configured to forward all DHCP requests elsewhere.
> You don't have control over the switch configuration, and you need 
> your systems to DHCP boot off of *your* DHCP server, not the one one 
> some other subnet.  Did I get that right?

Yes, that's exactly it. :-)

> 
> If so, one thing you could do is place all your systems on a hub 
> which is then connected to that switch.  The hub will repeat the DHCP 
> broadcast out all of it's ports, and back to the switch.  If your 
> DHCP server is located on that hub as well, it should answer sooner 
> than the DHCP server on the other side of the switch, since it is 
> closer.  The other thing you could do is temporarily disconnect your 
> hub from the switch until your systems have received an answer from 
> your DHCP server, then reconnect it once they've all started they're 
> installs.
> 

I'll see if I can people in the know in my neighbourhood to setup
things in a nicer way. Thanks for the suggestion.

-walter