Understanding NetWare 6 DNSDHCP

Understanding NetWare 6 DNS/DHCP

The difficulty of maintaining TCP/IP networks has been called the best kept secret around. As companies increasingly embrace TCP/IP as the networking protocol of choice, CNEs are looking for solutions to simplify IP management. Many who are accustomed to NetWare's relatively effortless IPX-based device naming and addressing scheme are alarmed to find that TCP/IP does not provide an automatic way to configure IP addresses and other connectivity information. Even sites that have had their LANs connected to the Internet for years are running up against limitations such as the scarcity of IP addresses.

NetWare 6 DNS/DHCP helps you manage the pavement of your information superhighway. Together these two advanced administration tools greatly alleviate the configuration and maintenance requirements associated with running the sophisticated TCP/IP protocol. Furthermore, by integrating these services into eDirectory, you can achieve centralized administration and enterprise-wide management of IP, network addresses, and host names.

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it's not, and we will prove it to you in the next two lessons. First, in this lesson, we will begin our journey through NetWare 6 DNS and DHCP with a brief overview.

• Domain Name System (DNS) DNS is a distributed name/address database used to translate numerical IP addresses into alphanumeric names, and vice versa.

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) DHCP provides a framework for dynamically passing configuration information to clients or service-providing resources on a TCP/IP network.