Enabling address conflict detection is generally a good idea so clients don’t obtain an IP address in use by another computer. The DHCP Server will ping the IP address it is about to grant to ensure nothing responds. You can configure the number of ping attempts, but one or two should be sufficient in most cases.
When a DHCP Server responds to a client request for a lease, the server also responds with any configured options for the scope. Options are nothing more than bits of configuration information, such as the servers to use for name resolution, the default domain name, default router, etc. Some options may be specific to a particular scope, for example, the default router for a subnet; these options are called scope options. Other options may be more global, such as the default domain name; these options are called server options. If you have more than a handful of scopes to configure global settings on, it can be tedious to change them later if you’ve configured them individually as scope options. This is where server options come in. Instead of configuring the default domain name option on each individual scope, you can configure it at the server level. All scopes will then use this server option. You can override any server options by configuring the same option on a scope.
Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003-based DHCP servers that belong to an Active Directory domain must be authorized before they can give out leases to clients. This feature helps reduce the danger of a rogue Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 DHCP Server that an end-user sets up, perhaps unintentionally. A rogue DHCP Server can provide incorrect lease information or deny lease requests altogether, ultimately causing a denial of service for clients on your network.
The DHCP Server service is an optional Windows Component, so you can install it using the Add or Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. There are no configuration options when you install the DHCP Server, so installation is a breeze. After you’ve installed the service, you’ll need to authorize the server, if you have an Active Directory environment.