As you might be aware, for a device to join the network, it must have an assigned IP address. While we can manually assign addresses, managing hundreds of devices becomes challenging, that’s where DHCP comes in. DHCP enables clients to ask the server for network details like IP address, subnet mask, and gateway. This way, devices can connect to the network without the network administrator needing to assign IP addresses manually.
I chose to make a router the DHCP server because it’s the method taught in CCNA and it’s easier to set up in EVE-NG. I proceeded to configure all the interfaces on both the DHCP server and the router.
Next, I configured DHCP on the server. I named the DHCP pool ‘Office-Network’ and decided to go with the private network 192.168.10.0 to keep it nice and simple.
Because the DHCP server is in a different network, it’s crucial to configure the ip helper-address on the gateway router. This enables the gateway router to forward DHCP requests to the DHCP server.
With the DHCP server in a different network, it can’t directly respond to the client’s IP request for the 192.168.10.0 network. To fix this, I took the step to set up a basic static route.
To finish up, I made sure the virtual PCs were set to request DHCP and then I pinged the gateway to confirm that everything was running smoothly.
In summary, DHCP simplifies network management by automatically assigning IP addresses. Using a router as the DHCP server along with the IP helper-address and a static route, I was able to use DHCP to assign IP addresses across different networks.
