CompTIA Network+ Exam: Configuring DHCP for MAC Address to IP Address Mapping

Ensure Device-to-IP Consistency with DHCP and MAC Address Configuration

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Question

Which of the following would need to be configured to ensure a device with a specific MAC address is always assigned the same IP address from DHCP?

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D. E.

B.

The correct answer is B. Reservation.

Explanation:

When a client device connects to a network, it sends a broadcast message requesting an IP address assignment from the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. The DHCP server then assigns an IP address from the available pool of addresses. This process is called dynamic assignment and is used to conserve IP addresses and to simplify network administration.

However, in some cases, it is necessary to assign a specific IP address to a specific device, for example, to enable access control or to facilitate network services. This is where DHCP reservation comes in.

DHCP reservation is a feature that allows you to reserve a specific IP address for a specific device based on its MAC address. To do this, the network administrator needs to configure the DHCP server with a reservation that maps the device's MAC address to a specific IP address. Once the reservation is set up, the DHCP server will always assign the reserved IP address to the device with that MAC address when it connects to the network.

To answer the question, the option that would need to be configured to ensure a device with a specific MAC address is always assigned the same IP address from DHCP is B. Reservation.

Here are brief explanations of the other options:

A. Scope options: Scope options are settings that are configured on a DHCP server to control various aspects of the DHCP service, such as lease duration, DNS server IP address, default gateway, and so on. While scope options are important for configuring the DHCP service, they are not directly related to reserving a specific IP address for a specific device.

C. Dynamic assignment: Dynamic assignment is the default method used by DHCP to assign IP addresses to client devices. As mentioned earlier, this method assigns IP addresses from a pool of available addresses based on the first-come, first-served basis.

D. Exclusion: DHCP exclusion is a method used to exclude specific IP addresses from the DHCP pool. This method is useful when you want to reserve specific IP addresses for other purposes, such as static IP addresses or other network devices.

E. Static assignment: Static assignment is a method of assigning a fixed IP address to a device manually. Unlike DHCP, where IP addresses are dynamically assigned, static IP addresses are manually assigned by the network administrator. While static assignment can ensure that a device always uses the same IP address, it can be time-consuming to manage in large networks and can lead to IP address conflicts if not properly managed.