Question

[cnble80]

Is enabling DHCP more secure then leaving it disabled and using static ip addresses?

[objohn]

Enabling DHCp is less secure than static but is also much more hard work.

say for example, someone brings in a laptop and plugs into your network, they can get an ip address and see things on your network if it is unsecured by other means such as NTFS and share permissions. If you have static IP's then they need to know what range you are using to be able to get hold of anything on your network.

However, managing static IP's is a lot of work and if you ever want to change your ip range then you have to do a lot of work.

If you network is small, then use staic. if anything more than 5 pc's use dhcp.

OJ

[cnble80]

Ok well here is how i am thinking. When DCHP is enabled your ip addresses constantly change right? I think thats how that works, anyway, wouldnt it be harder for someone to hack into my network if my ip addresses are constantly changing then if they stay the same.

[Storm90]

From what objohn posted the answer would be no. I know my provider changes my Ip every 3 days.It would be easy for anyone to steal.

[YeOldeStonecat]

You're talking about DHCP service and the inside of your network, the LAN side, right?

Wether your networks LAN side is fixed, or run on DHCP....doesn't matter about having DHCP or not as far as security from the outside is concerned, the router is stopping outside traffic from coming in via NAT. Your private class C IP address is simply not seen from the outside world (192.168.1.<whatever it is>).

Even with DHCP, your IP address usually doesn't change, it can at times due to several factors...but consider that it's often the same IP.

[cnble80]

Ok, so is dhcp the way to go or should i stay with static ip's?

[koldchillah]

Originally posted by cnble80
Ok, so is dhcp the way to go or should i stay with static ip's?

I've got 5 PC's setup in my home office. I have DHCP disabled on the router and everything is setup statically. Whenever I host a LAN party, I just re-enable DHCP on the router so that everyone can just plug in and pickup an address. I can do this without changing the config for each of my static PC's b/c DHCP will only give out the addresses that are not taken. When everyone packs up their PC's and leave, I disable DHCP again.

If you have a server or are running any programs behind your router and you need to forward ports to a particular server/PC, then you definitely want to go static.

[cnble80]

thanks kold.