controlling DHCP

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Laura Conrad <lconrad at laymusic.org> asked:
> I have a router with a dhcp server on my home network.

You don't specify the brand name/model of the router so I can't determine how
or whether it might be configurable in the way you want.  It probably can't;
at least, I can't see a way to do it in mine (a Linksys WRT54G).

> Does anyone know how to tell a dhcp server to use specific addresses?

I disabled the DHCP server in my router and use my Linux box instead.  Set up
a dhcpd.conf with lines like this:

  host audiotron {
    hardware ethernet 00:04:32:00:2a:b0;
    fixed-address audiotron.ci.net;
  }
  host c5100 {
    hardware ethernet 00:80:87:44:14:c7;
    fixed-address c5100.ci.net;
  }

These are examples from my own setup (an Audiotron MP3 player and a Canon
printer).  I use DNS entries but I think you could also just put the IP
addresses into your dhcpd config.  Dhcpd should be built into any Linux
distro, just enable it on one of your systems via yast2 or whatever tool is
provided for managing network tools.

-rich