Re: NT 3.51 behavior

["Edie E. Gunter" <[e-mail]>]

> The NT DHCP client (and all Microsoft DHCP clients) actually use option 12
> to transmit the client's hostname *to* the server.  (Take a network trace
> sometime and see for yourself...)  All machines running Microsoft networking,
> even DHCP clients, require that a hostname be set when the system is
> installed.  Microsoft's NT DHCP server, in turn, can use this hostname,
> coupled with the IP address it provides, to update the WINS server database
> (which, in turn, can feed into an MS NT DNS server, thus providing their
> own form of dynamically updateable DNS).

IBM's AIX and OS/2 DHCP clients use option 12 (and 15) in a similar way,
to tell the DHCP server the DNS hostname for this machine (though it is
not required for the client to send these in -- it's optional.)  This 
then allows the IBM DNS servers to be updated dynamically.

> There's nothing in the DHCP specs that prohibits the use of option 12
> in this manner, though it may seem a little "odd".

Section 3.5, "Client Parameters in DHCP", in the 11/95 draft describes
the use of options in the client's DISCOVER/REQUEST to provide hints to 
the server.  

Edie