DHCP server

I need something to dish-out up to 32 IP addresses on a LAN
using DHCP. This is all the device needs to do. Fixed IPs aren't
an option in this case.
Anyone know of a cheap box (eg router) that'll do it simply by
being plugged-in?
Alternatively, would an old PC running smoothwall etc be able
to do this?

Cheers,

 

A cheap router would do the job. Out of the box most of them have their
DHCP server enabled. Typically they take an address like 192.168.0.1 and
dish out addresses from 192.168.2 onwards. They will also set the DNS
and gateway addresses though, you may not want that though..

It's hardly worth adding additional hardware though. If you have
machines already on the network can you run DHCP server software on one
of them?

http://www.softcab.com/dhcp-server/index.php

http://corporate.weird-solutions.com/products/dhcp-turbo

http://www.brothersoft.com/dhcp-server-130637.html

Or try this without a DHCP Server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/220874

 

I think just about any domestic router will do it.

Yes, but do you really need a dedicated machine to do it? You can run a
DHCP service on any PC connected to the network. Here's one:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dhcp-dns-server/

 

Thanks, Rob. Its for imaging and all 32 PCs can be assumed to have
no OS installed (imaging s/w runs from bootCDs.) I have an old
domestic ADSL router I can try first (and dozens of old PCs..)
Cheers,

 

Thanks, Bernard. As I said to Rob, I'll try an old ADSL router, first,
as all of the PCs could be blank (imaging soln). I did try to find
something
that ran under XP (on an old lappy), but none of them seemed to be able to
support enough clients (30 limit, ISTR.)
I don't recognize all of those links, so will check 'em out.
Thanks again,

 

Can the imaging software not be configured to dole out IP addresses?

Are the PCs to be booted from some kind of disk or are they PXE booting?

You might need to be a little choosy if you are PXE booting as the PXE
boot process uses BOOTP to obtain an address and not all DHCP servers
respond correctly to BOOTP requests.