Hello, Can anyone explain me the difference between Authoritative and Non-authoritative DHCP Server?

To prevent unauthorized DHCP servers from issuing duplicate or incorrect ip addresses to clients, you have to "Authorize" DHCP servers, which requires administrative rights on the domain.A DHCP server that may be configured, but not authorized will not issue addresses. We don't call them "Authoritative and Non-authoritative"but I think this is what you mean. Authoritative and Non-authoritative generally refer to DNS servers. Which mean, <DNS server asking itself> Do I actually host the zone file for this domain (the master copy), and can answer with certainty, or do I just have this information from an upstream server?

To avoid problems in the network causing by mis-configured DHCP servers, server in windows 2000 must be validate by AD before starting service to clients. If an authorized DHCP finds any DHCP server in the network it stop serving the clients

Ashish Rajput said: If an authorized DHCP finds any DHCP server in the network it stop serving the clients You mention Windows 2000 DHCP. Windows 2003 DHCP was the first version to listen for dhcp servers on the network and stop the DHCP Server service if another was found. 2000 does not do this. Additionally this feature is not related to the "authorization" of the server. it works even as a non-domain joined DHCP server.Mike Crowley: MCT, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator