Now that we have WINS set up and ready to go, we can configure our DHCP server. Once again, go to the "Manage Your Server" wizard and find the DHCP Server section. Click "Manage this DHCP Server" and wait for the DHCP management console or MMC. As a sidenote: MMC stands for Microsoft Management Console. It is a universal management interface, and it is quite powerful. You can create custom management interfaces by just running "mmc" from the "Start" -> "Run" dialog. It is worth learning more about since it can really ease the day to day management of the server. Ok, back on track. Now once the DHCP MMC loads, it should look something like Figure 1-21.

Figure 1-21

Click on the "Server Options" section in the left pane. You should just see the DNS Server option configured like in Figure 1-21. We need to configure several more to get the network clients configured properly. First, however, I want to go into just a little DHCP theory.

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and it automatically configures the TCP/IP information for network clients. This means that you can just plug in your Windows or Linux computers to your network, and you don't have to tell them what IP address to use, what default gateway, DNS server, WINS server, or DNS domain name to use. The DHCP server does it all for you. Pretty handy, huh! DHCP uses "scopes" or blocks of addresses to configure clients. When a client connects to the network, it broadcasts out on the LAN looking for DHCP information. The DHCP server receives this broadcast and makes a note of which network it came in on. Then if it has a scope for that network, it will configure that client with address information and any of a number of configured options. There are two sorts of options used in DHCP: Scope options and Server options. Server options are given to all DHCP clients who get information from this server. Scope options are only given to clients that get configured from that particular scope. Here, we will configure only one scope option: the default gateway. Configuring the DHCP server this way should save you some headache later on if your network grows.

Now back to the MMC. Right-click on the "Server Options" entry in the left pane and choose "Configure Options" from that context menu. You should see a new window with a list of options. Scroll down until you see the "015 DNS Domain Name" shown in Figure 1-22. Enter the Active Directory domain name you chose earlier. Click "Apply," but don't close the window yet. We need to configure more options first.

Figure 1-22

Continue scrolling down until you see "044 WINS/NBNS Servers" as shown in Figure 1-23. Enter your server IP address in the "IP Address" area and click "Add". Don't worry about the "Server Name" box. Now click "Apply" again and do not close the window.

Figure 1-23

The last server option we need to configure is the NetBIOS node type. Enter "0x8" as the node type just like Figure 1-24. Now you can click "Ok" to close this window.

Figure 1-24

Now that we have the server options configured, we need to add one scope option. Right click on the "Scope Options" entry in the left pane and choose "Configure Options" from the context menu. Another list of options very similar to the one we saw in Step 16 should appear. Look for "003 Router" entry near the top of the list. This will be the default gateway for this scope. You need to enter the default gateway for this network. If you don't have a router anywhere on your network, then you probably don't need to enter anything here. However, if you have a broadband router, enter its internal IP address here. See Figure 1-25 for an example. Again, just enter the IP address in the IP Address area (I know that sounds like a "duh" statement, but who knows who this will help!) Click "Ok" to exit this window.