I have two computers at home. They are all running Windows 2000. They are connected through a router. In the past, each of these two computers employed DHCP to get an IP address from the router during the Windows start-up. But someone told me that if I manually set the IP address for those computers, they can start a bit faster, as they do not have to spend time to query router for IP address during Windows start-up. Is that true?

yeah its a little faster and just more secure cause u know the ip for each computer.. But theres a slight chance that tha dns server (from ur isp) might change so ur internet wouldnt work unless u got the new ip from the dsn just access your rotuer. add the 2 dns ips in there and then add a 3rd which would be your router ip so the router can get the ip if the ip is changed form the dns and of course specify the ip on each computer

uselessmitch...an apt nickname in this case! Mitch, your post makes no sense! The router doesn't get it's IP from DNS. It gets it from the providers DHCP server. In the case of most highspeed internet connections the address changes regularly unless you pay extra for a static IP address. The WAN IP address on the router doesn't affect the LAN IP address or those of the client PC's. Even if the ISP changed the IP for the router's WAN connection and that stopped working, the LAN would still work. As to whether or not using static IP assignment on the clients will make a difference in bootup speed....well, if it does, it won't be one you'll notice with your eyes. If you do go with static IP assignment, you'll have to reserve the addresses you use on the router's DHCP so it won't try to give them out to any other clients. Or, you could just disable the DHCP server on the router.

with only 2 pcs, why does it matter how fast they get an address on boot up. you in a race or something? you may gain 10 or 20 micro seconds, with that much more time you could blink your eyes one less time during boot up. if you really want faster boot up, switch to scsi hard drives, add more ram, etc. etc. do something that will make a real difference.

Hey Curt, Mitch didn't say that the router gets the its IP through DNS , he said that the DNS addresses may change. They do sometimes change you know. Yes, if the router is using DHCP, it'll get the correct DNS address from the ISP. No problem there, however, when setting up a PC to use static addresses, you must also manually plug in the DNS ip addresses on that PC. So if the DNS addresses change, the PC's on the network can still communicate with one another, but can't connect to any websites using the domain name. They can only connect using the site's IP address. It's still no big deal to fix though. If the ISP does change DNS servers (and have you ever seen that?) all he'll have to do is update his static IP configuration. As to the comment about the speed difference, I would suggest you try it. On a tiny network like we're disussing , you're right, it'll take no time at all for the PC to grab its address and go. For large networks, it can take longer and you certainly will notice it with your eyes. But however fast it gets the address, it does take time to do it because the PC has to sniff out and communicate with the DHCP server, even if for only a picosecond. Therefore the strictly technical answer is that a computer will boot faster using static IP addresses. However, there's so many other things the computer has to do to boot that shaving off that picosecond or two doesn't gain you much. ...and Curt, this is a technical support forum. It's pretty rude of you to throw around insults at people who try to help others. Especially when you didn't even comprehend Uselessmitch's post. If you have a problem with him, contact him and handle it like a man rather than hiding behind your computer.

Well. I'll add that it does get pretty irritating to see people post replies when they are wrong. I'm not saying Mitch is wrong but his post certain doesn't make a lot of sense, or at best, it is very difficult to understand what he is saying even if you know the correct answer. So to be honest, his post in this case is useless. I would bet that the person asking the question was not helped by Mitch. I see people posting incorrect information here all the time so I know where Curt is coming from. And to elaborate on the original question. Will the computer boot faster with DHCP or not. The truth is, you'll NEVER notice the difference. Should you use DHCP? Almost alway, yes. In a small network you could argue this point all day. In a large network consider this. You want to save time so you configure your computers to use static IPs so they boot faster. Make a few mistakes with IP address or subnet mask or gateway configuration on those pcs and see how fast they boot. Add a few duplicate IPs and see how fast they boot. In the long run, DHCP will be faster as a practical matter. The 10 or 20 packets it sends on the network will never be noticed.

Hi Glen, The point I'm trying to make is that right or wrong, understandable or not, Mitch is trying to help someone and it's wrong to insult him for it. Curt's comment, "uselessmitch...an apt nickname in this case!" was childish and accomplished nothing, other than maybe hurting someone. I understand what you're saying though about the frustration. The post was hard to understand and I had to read it twice to get it. Have you noticed the difference in civility on the different forums by the way? It's my perception that the WinXP forum is the absolute worst, followed by this one, then Linux, then Unix. I'm thinking it's because the WinXP forum is used by a lot of kids and the Unix guys are the nearing-retirement type.