Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two

Hack #20. Quick and Easy DHCP Setup

Take control of DHCP services to better integrate with other tools in your environment.

There are lots of places where clients are running Linux-based services infrastructures in SOHO environments. I do this myself at home. When you're in a smaller environment, there are lots of black-box appliances and all-in-one software packages that will take care of automatically assigning IP addresses to all the hosts on your network. Some will even let your DNS server know about dynamically assigned addresses, which is great. However, as the environment grows and more services and machines are added, this can get to be somewhat cumbersome.

The first time I realized that I might not want my wireless router giving out IP addresses was when I got a visit from a friend of mine who has a wireless laptop (which happened to be in his truck). While we were talking, he wanted to show me a web site, but he couldn't remember what it was called. He had it bookmarked on the laptop, so I told him to go get it, and I'd put his MAC address into my wireless router's "OK" table. Problem was, I had forgotten the password to my router. I had set it up months ago, and none of my formula-derived passwords were working. He wound up saying never mind, and I was really disappointed in that piece of my infrastructure.

After thinking more about that scenario, I realized I shouldn't even need to touch a black-box appliance to allow a guest to get an IP address in my environment. If ...