Hi all, I work at a car dealership. I have three buildings "gmc,toyota,ford" and in each building I have a PC from NY state to do car inspections. These have always used dailup to access the state server. They have just recently said that we can now use broadband. The problem is that there is no way for me to configure them with static IP's and my network is static. I called the state and was told that I need to figure it out on my own but I can not get into the pc to make changes. So I am thinking that I could put a switch in front of each on in each building and give the switch a static IP the use the switch to give the PC a DHCP IP. I have not worked with switches very much. So I think that is possible but not sure. Does anyone know of a good and easy way that I can somehow does this. And not expensive. Thanks Also how hard would it be to make my whole network DHCP, besides having to change the setting on each machine.

If I were you I'd go for the latter solution: make everything dynamic. There is an initial job, but later maintenance will be lower. To answer if it's hard is not possible without knowing anything about your environment. Do you have servers? A domain? Network printers?

Ya I forgot to put that in here. I have a PDC and BDC. Domain of about 75 machines. Win 2003. 2 servers, both dell power edges. What about the first question. Is there a solution that is easy and not alot of money. Is it possible with the switch idea? Is there a way just to start to make it dynamic, like to slowy convert it. Have some that are and some not, So I dont have to convert them all at the same time?

If you want to assign IPs via DHCP (dynamic or reservations), you will need to have a DHCP server on your network. Switches are layer two network devices. I have never seen that type of network device also have a DHCP services component. You may be confused with consumer based routers that have a limited DHCP services component such as you may have on a small home/office network. These devices generally have very little options when it comes to customizing the DHCP scope. If you have servers, you can add the DHCP role and manage DHCP that way. Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Now I did get the wireless router, and use it as a DHCP server. That was an option within the wireless router. Before I was not sure if that was only for the wireless connections but have found out it works for both "wireless, and wired". So far it is working fine. I have only set it up and tested it with my laptop "plug in a cable from the back of the router then into my laptop, with the laptop card settings on DHCP, and plug the router into my network with a static IP set" and is working so far. I am going to go try it out with the inspection PC shortly. But since it is working with my laptop I do not see why it would not with that PC. I then disabled the wireless disbale the Wireless Router Radio and disbale the SSID Broadcast. Can anyone think of anything else I should do? Can I add the DHCP role on my server and use both DHCP and statci at the same time?

You can have a mixed environment as long as you make sure the addresses used for static assignment are not also in the scope of the DHCP server. The addresses should still be on the same subnet though. This has be be the case either you use the router or server for DHCP. Since you have a Windows server I suggest you enable DHCP and use that instead of the router. The server acting as a DHCP server should still have a static IP address.

I would love to be able to use the server as dhcp/ I just dont wanna get into something and not know how to do it completly and mess up the network. I have never done anything with dhcp. So i dont know how hard or easy it is. I can research it but there is still things that I can runn into and not know what to do. Can I add the role and start to confige it while keeping the static up and going. How will the server know to use dhcp or the static. If I was to make the network go down at all that would be very bad. Do you know of any good sits that are a good way to setup dhcp. I do know if i go to the config you server wizard within the admin tools there is the dhcp role. So the wizard can be used but I dont know what to do from their. Will it need info that is not comman knowledge. What would be the best resource to use to figure it all out before I touch anything.

You dont have to worry about messing up the network by turning on the DHCP role. You will need the AD Admin to "authorize" this DHCP server in AD before it will issue any leases to DHCP enabled clients. I would agree as well that the preference is to use the server for DHCP instead of the router. For one, you will be able to manage it much easier with more flexibility. When you create the scope on the DHCP server, make sure that you EXCLUDE addresses from the scope that are assigned as static IPs to the clients on the network. In addition, just make sure the DHCP server's IP conflict detection is enabled. Read: Using Conflict Detection in DHCP http://www.anitkb.com/2010/03/using-conflict-detection-in-dhcp.html If you need to have an IP on those inspection pcs that never change, you'll want to create a DHCP reservation in the DHCP Admin console, specifically for those PCs so they are always assigned the same IP. Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

As long as you don't configure a computer to use DHCP it will work just as before even if you introduce a DHCP server in the network. This means you can reconfigure one computer at the time and check the functionality before moving to the next one. In other words this is a low risk job. There is a basic guide for DHCP installation here: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/DHCP_Server_Windows_2003.html There are basically two things that can go wrong if you are careless: 1. If the DHCP scope includes addresses that are also assigned statically to other machines you can get ip-address conflicts. 2. If you configure the DHCP scope with addresses that are on another subnet than the static ones then machines with static addresses and machines with dynamic addresses can not communicate. PS! Remember to add a server- or scope option for "Router" (Gateway) on the DHCP server.

I am looking for something that will search my LAN and tell me all the used IP addresses. I currenlty have all static IP's and I am looking into slowing converting to DHCP. I am giong to start with just a small scope but I first need to find the devices that are using *.*.*.200 and above for ips. So I then can switch them to something lower. I plan to use a scope of 10.14.242.200-254 for my DHCP addresses. Is there any kind of windows program that will search the network and tell me what IP's are being used and what device is using them, or does anyone know of any other free program that can help me do what I want and find out what IP's are in use?

SolarWinds has a free tool that does just that, and it's quick and easy to use. Just install and enter a network/subnet and it will check every address and give you reverse DNS lookup and other info if available. http://www.solarwinds.com/register/registration.aspx?program=912&c=70150000000Ehqn&INTCMP=DLIndexA_FreeTools_IPAddressTracker