What is DHCP?

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a standardized networking protocol used by servers on an IP network to allocate IP addresses to computers.

The purpose of DHCP is to automate the IP address configuration of a computer without a network administrator. IP addresses are typically selected from a range of assigned IP addresses stored in a database on the server and issued to a computer which requests a new IP address. An IP address is assigned to a computer for a set interval, after which, the computer must renew the IP address or acquire a new one.