Please Whitelist This Site?

I know everyone hates ads. But please understand that I am providing premium content for free that takes hundreds of hours of time to research and write. I don't want to go to a pay-only model like some sites, but when more and more people block ads, I end up working for free. And I have a family to support, just like you. :)

If you like The TCP/IP Guide, please consider the download version. It's priced very economically and you can read all of it in a convenient format without ads.

If you want to use this site for free, I'd be grateful if you could add the site to the whitelist for Adblock. To do so, just open the Adblock menu and select "Disable on tcpipguide.com". Or go to the Tools menu and select "Adblock Plus Preferences...". Then click "Add Filter..." at the bottom, and add this string: "@@||tcpipguide.com^$document". Then just click OK.

Thanks for your understanding!

Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide


NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.
If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

The Book is Here... and Now On Sale!

Get The TCP/IP Guide for your own computer.
The TCP/IP Guide

Custom Search







Table Of Contents  The TCP/IP Guide
 9  TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols, Services and Applications (OSI Layers 5, 6 and 7)
      9  TCP/IP Network Configuration and Management Protocols (BOOTP, DHCP, SNMP and RMON)
           9  Host Configuration and TCP/IP Host Configuration Protocols (BOOTP and DHCP)
                9  TCP/IP Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)

Previous Topic/Section
TCP/IP Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
12
3
Next Page
BOOTP Client/Server Messaging and Addressing
Next Topic/Section

BOOTP Overview, History and Standards
(Page 3 of 3)

Changes to BOOTP and the Development of DHCP

BOOTP was the TCP/IP host configuration of choice from the mid-1980s through the end of the 1990s. The vendor extensions introduced in RFC 1048 were popular, and over the years, additional vendor extensions were defined; RFC 1048 was replaced by RFCs 1084, 1395 and 1497 in succession. Some confusion also resulted over the years in how some sections of RFC 951 should be interpreted, and how certain features of BOOTP work.

RFC 1542, Clarifications and Extensions for the Bootstrap Protocol, was published in October 1993 to address this, and also made some slight changes to the protocol's operation. (RFC 1542 is actually a correction of the nearly-identical RFC 1532 that had some small errors in it.)

While BOOTP was obviously quite successful, it also had certain weaknesses of its own. One of the most important of these is lack of support for dynamic address assignment. The need for dynamic assignment became much more pronounced when the Internet really started to take off in the late 90s. This led directly to the development of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

While DHCP replaced BOOTP as the TCP/IP host configuration protocol of choice, it would be inaccurate to say that BOOTP is “gone”. It is still used to this day in various networks. Furthermore, DHCP was based directly on BOOTP, and they share many attributes, including a common message format. BOOTP vendor extensions were used as the basis for DHCP options, which work in the same way but include extra capabilities. In fact, the successor to RFC 1497 is RFC 1533, which officially merges BOOTP vendor extensions and BOOTP options into the same standard.


Previous Topic/Section
TCP/IP Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
12
3
Next Page
BOOTP Client/Server Messaging and Addressing
Next Topic/Section

If you find The TCP/IP Guide useful, please consider making a small Paypal donation to help the site, using one of the buttons below. You can also donate a custom amount using the far right button (not less than $1 please, or PayPal gets most/all of your money!) In lieu of a larger donation, you may wish to consider purchasing a download license of The TCP/IP Guide. Thanks for your support!
Donate $2
Donate $5
Donate $10
Donate $20
Donate $30
Donate: $



Home - Table Of Contents - Contact Us

The TCP/IP Guide (http://www.TCPIPGuide.com)
Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005

© Copyright 2001-2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site.