DHCP Lease Life Cycle and Lease Timers

The use of dynamic address allocation in DHCP means a whole new way of thinking about addresses. A client no longer owns an address, but rather leases it. This means that when a client machine is set to use DHCP dynamic addressing, it can never assume that it has an address on a permanent basis. Each time it powers up, it must engage in communications with a DHCP server to begin or confirm the lease of an address. It also must perform other activities over time to manage this lease and possibly terminate it.

Calling dynamic address assignments leases is a good analogy, because a DHCP IP address lease is similar to a real-world lease in a number of respects. For example, when you rent an apartment, you sign ...

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