DHCP for Windows 2000

What Is BOOTP?

BOOTP, much like RARP, is a protocol that allows a diskless host to request an IP address. It also provides other configuration parameters, as well as supplying a boot file. BOOTP is an IP-based protocol that uses UDP to provide the communication between a BOOTP client and a BOOTP server. More importantly, BOOTP allows hosts (e.g., desktop PCs, servers, X terminals, etc.) to be dynamically configured to use the TCP/IP protocol suite. So instead of manually configuring each TCP/IP-based host on a network, BOOTP delivers the information automatically without user intervention.

BOOTP is a client/server process where the BOOTP client, during the boot phase, requests configuration information from a BOOTP server. The BOOTP server, upon receiving the request from the BOOTP client, looks up the client’s MAC address in its BOOTP configuration database and sends a reply containing IP configuration information. The client receives the reply and configures its TCP/IP stack. The BOOTP client will also load a boot file if the BOOTP server supplies a path using the fully qualified filename. A major improvement is the magic cookie, which is a mechanism for a BOOTP server to supply vendor-specific operating system (OS) options to a BOOTP client. These options could include DNS servers, WINS or NetBIOS name servers (NBNS), time servers, etc.

Tip

There are many configuration options (known as vendor options) available. Refer to RFC-1533 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1533.txt) for ...