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Addressing Tips When it comes to address management, there's no substitute for careful planning. Here are some ways to keep chaos at bay: Survey every device in the network before installing a DHCP server. Older devices might include Bootp clients that automatically request IP addresses from a newly installed DHCP server. To keep IP ad dresses from being devoured by these devices (which rarely, if ever, need them), identify Bootp clients and disable them. Set up an addressing hierarchy (on paper or electronically). Decide which clusters of addresses can be allocated to particular groups of machines. This way, there won't be a surfeit of addresses for one group while another has none. Avoid single points of failure. Key addressing components like DHCP and DNS servers should be redundant. Any remote sites linked to a DHCP server on the other side of the WAN? Give them their own--otherwise a WAN failure will take the LAN down. Make maximum use of routers. Routers can help net managers control which addresses get handed out to which machines, since they can be configured to filter Bootp and DHCP requests and responses. This also helps cut down on unnecessary network traffic. Use proxy servers as needed. A good way to keep control of addresses is to configure a central address server wi th multiple proxy servers that relay address requests back to it. Use application-layer monitoring tools. DHCP and Bootp can cut big holes in security. Application-layer tools can help track down intruders by recording the addresses that have recently accessed a Web server. Configure clients wisely. Know which servers they should be using when. If clients have access to more than one server, be sure they're configured to request from the most appropriate one first. Write addressing MIBs. Net managers need to know if a DHCP or Bootp server starts running out of addresses. Write a MIB that will send an alert to a net management platform once the pool of available addresses has dropped below a certain level. [ Home ] [ Registration | Subscriptions ] [ Contact Us | E-Mail ] Home Contact Editors Lab Tests Registration Tech Tutorials Buyer's Guide Global Networks Opinion / Columns FAQs Subscriptions