2 DHCP Scopes, 1 entirely reservation based, Server 2003.

[OutToLunch]

This will probably go into the "Oh well, seemed like a good idea at the time" files but...

 

We have 1 physical network running an admin and curriculum network on 2 different IP ranges. No VLANs or anything exciting. 192.168.16.0/24 for admin, 192.168.0.0/24 for curric.

 

Currently, the method to set a PC up with access to the admin network is to manually give it a static IP address - this is starting to cause problems in areas which only have wireless access available as if a member of admin staff then takes their laptop to another site/home, it won't work as it is stuck with the 192.168.16.x manual IP and won't connect.

 

Curriculum side is happily running a DHCP server for 192.168.0.0.

 

Had a semi brainwave (or not, we shall see!) this afternoon that if I added a second scope to the DHCP server, then excluded all the addresses from immediate distribution, I could set up each machine that's on the admin network with a DHCP reservation on the second scope and allow it to work anywhere but pick up a reserved admin IP by DHCP when it's on this site.

 

Will the world come to a horrible end if I try and put this in place on my 2003 server? We simply don't have the equipment currently or budget for new gear to get VLANs, routers or anything else in place so trying to muddle through with what we've got.

[K.C.Leblanc]

I don't see how you'd stop the admin machines from grabbing an IP from your curriculum DHCP instead of their reserved IP from the admin DHCP.

 

How many admin laptops are we talking about? You might be able to script something with NETSH to sort it, or if it's a very number of users issue them USB wifin dongals. The Wifi dongals can still be set to DHCP, so if you instruct them to turn off the internat wireless and plug in the dingle it should be peachy.

[OutToLunch]

Thanks for the reply. It would be the one DHCP server running both scopes, sorry, not sure if I made that clear enough - as I was looking at it, the admin laptops shouldn't grab a curriculum IP as when they send a DHCP request the server would return an admin IP based on the MAC address being a reserved one for the admin DHCP scope. Not looking at running 2 different DHCP servers on the same physical net, just one server, 2 scopes.

 

Bar a few office staff most of the admin team are split site now so it's a lot of laptops - the majority without admin rights to be flipping things round with netsh. Had considered that idea but the trade off of giving them admin and everything else breaking vs the current net issues was too much. USB wireless is a possibility, but if the situation described above can actually work, there shouldn't be any need for it.