Compatibility: All

The first step in configuring a DHCP server is to create the configuration file that stores the network information for the clients. 
Global options can be declared for all clients, or options can be declared for each client system.
If you change the configuration file, the changes will not take effect until you restart the DHCP daemon.

Creating Global parameters

Domain Name: This option specifies the domain name that client should use when resolving hostnames via the Domain Name System.
Gateway: The gateway option specifies a list of IP addresses for gateways on the client's subnet. Gateways should be listed in order of preference
Subnet Mask: The subnet mask option specifies the client's subnet mask. If no subnet mask option is provided anywhere in scope, as a last resort Dhcpd will use the subnet mask from the subnet declaration for the network on which an address is being assigned. However, any subnet-mask option declaration that is in scope for the address being assigned will override the subnet mask specified in the subnet declaration.
Broadcast Address: This option specifies the broadcast address in use on the client's subnet.
NIS Domain: This option specifies the name of the client's NIS (Sun Network Information Services) domain. The domain is formatted as a character string consisting of characters from the NVT ASCII character set.
NIS Server: This option specifies a list of IP addresses indicating NIS servers available to the client. Servers should be listed in order of preference.
Static Route: This option specifies a list of static routes that the client should install in its routing cache. If multiple routes to the same destination are specified, they are listed in descending order of priority.
The routes consist of a list of IP address pairs. The first address is the destination address, and the second address is the router for the destination. Trailing 0 octets of the target indicates the subnet class of the route - so for static-routes value: 
172.0.0.0 172.16.2.254, 192.168.0.0 192.168.2.254; the script will create routes: 172/8 via 172.16.2.254 and 192.168/16 via 192.168.2.254.
The default route (0.0.0.0) is an illegal destination for a static route. To specify the default route, use the Gateway option.
Name Server: The server-name statement can be used to inform the client of the name of the server from which it is booting. Name should be the name that will be provided to the client.
DNS Server: The domain-name-servers option specifies a list of Domain Name System available to the client. Servers should be listed in order of preference.
Time Server: The time-server option specifies a list of time servers available to the client. Servers should be listed in order of preference.
Lease Time: Both default-lease-time and max-lease-time are noted in seconds. ie: 604800 = 7 days
Max Lease Time: The default lease time is the length of the DHCP lease on any clients that do not request a specific expiration time on their DHCP lease. The default is 7200 seconds, or two hours. For the vast majority of network environments, this is too low. I would generally recommend setting this to a week, which is 604800 seconds.
The maximum lease time must be more than the default lease time. 

Global Netbios values

NetBios server: The NetBIOS name server (NBNS) option specifies a list of name servers listed in order of preference. NetBIOS Name Service is currently more commonly referred to as WINS.
Netbios Scope: The NetBIOS scope identifier is an optional string of characters that identify different logical NetBIOS networks that run on the same physical TCP/IP network.
In most configurations the NetBIOS scope identifier does not need to be changed. The simplest way to configure NetBIOS is to use a single logical network. If you think that you need to use the scope identifier, make sure you fully understand the implications of changing it before doing anything. If you do change the identifier, you should list all the NetBIOS nodes in your network and keep a record of which scope identifier is assigned to which node.
Keeping track of all the scope identifiers in a NetBIOS network can be complicated and time consuming. Avoid using this feature unless you have a very specific need for it.
Before setting the value of the scope identifier, check its value on the other machines in the network. If you have MS-DOS or OS/2 workstations on the network, the NetBIOS scope identifier should be set to NULL on all machines on the network. Many implementations of NetBIOS for TCP/IP allow you to use only the NULL scope identifier. If you have any other AFPS-compatible machines on the network, check their documentation for restrictions.
Netbios node type: The NetBIOS node type option allows NetBIOS over TCP/IP clients which are configurable to be configured as described in RFC 1001/1002. The value is specified as a single octet which identifies the client type.

Possible node types are:

1

B-node: Broadcast - no WINS

2

P-node: Peer - WINS only.

4

M-node: Mixed - broadcast, then WINS

8

H-node: Hybrid - WINS, then broadcast

Bootp parameters

Lease Length: used to set the length of leases dynamically assigned to BOOTP clients. At some sites, it may be possible to assume that a lease is no longer in use if its holder has not used BOOTP or DHCP to get its address within a certain time period. The period is specified in length as a number of seconds. If a client reboots using BOOTP during the timeout period, the lease duration is reset to length, so a BOOTP client that boots frequently enough will never lose its lease. Needless to say, this parameter should be adjusted with extreme caution. ie: 604800 = 7 days.
Lease End: sets the ending time for all leases assigned dynamically to BOOTP clients. Because BOOTP clients do not have any way of renewing leases, and don't know that their leases could expire, by default dhcpd assigns infinite leases to all BOOTP clients. However, it may make sense in some situations to set a cutoff date for all BOOTP leases for example, the end of a school term, or the time at night when a facility is closed and all machines are required to be powered off. Date should be the date on which all assigned BOOTP leases will end. The date is specified in the form: W YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS W is the day of the week expressed as a number from zero (Sunday) to six (Saturday). YYYY is the year, including the century. MM is the month expressed as a number from 1 to 12. DD is the day of the month, counting from 1. HH is the hour, from zero to 23. MM is the minute and SS is the second. The time is always in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), not local time.

Bootp File

Dns Server: The domain-name-servers option specifies a list of Domain Name System available to the client. Servers should be listed in order of preference.
Name Server: The server-name statement specifies the name of the boot server name to use. This is also not used by the standard client configuration script.
Time Server: The time-server option specifies a list of time servers available to the client. Servers should be listed in order of preference.
Subnet Mask: The subnet mask option specifies the client's subnet mask. If no subnet mask option is provided anywhere in scope, as a last resort Dhcpd will use the subnet mask from the subnet declaration for the network on which an address is being assigned. However, any subnet-mask option declaration that is in scope for the address being assigned will override the subnet mask specified in the subnet declaration.
Gateway: The gateway option specifies a list of IP addresses for gateways on the client's subnet. Gateways should be listed in order of preference.

The following can only be configured to use BOOTP: 
Macintosh with Open Transport 
Windows 3.x and Trumpet Winsock 
Macintosh and MacTCP 
You are encouraged to upgrade your software to use DHCP. 
PC users would need to upgrade to Windows for Workgroups, Win95/98 or NT. Macintosh users would need to upgrade to a MAC OS that supports Open Transport. Consult your local computer support person for details.