Networking is the Future of Audio Pt. 3 - DHCP: Routers and Gateways

Now that we have covered IP addresses and the subnets in which they exist, we need to look into how these IP addresses are managed.

Almost every device allows you to manually enter the device IP Address, the subnet mask, and a third IP address known as the gateway. It is always an option to manually enter all of these details into every device and keep track of them in a spreadsheet. You will quickly find that once you have more than a few devices, this can get tricky. Try having to memorize a whole sixty-four channel patch sheet. It's easy to remember the first few channels or maybe an entire drum kit, but past that it can become hard to keep it all straight.

This is where DHCP comes in; short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

This takes all the IP address management and places that responsibility on what most people would know as a router. The router often functions as a DHCP server which automatically hands out all the information you would otherwise have to manually enter, as well as keeping the devices from having overlapping IP addresses.

You can consider the DHCP server to be the production manager at a concert load in. The production manager handles the division of labor to ensure a smooth operation. All production communication flows through the production manager because they can see the entire picture of the network of crew working under them.

It is worth noting, that while incredibly helpful, a DHCP server is not mandatory. Much like a small tour operation with a few crew members who know their roles, a network with just a few devices can be easily configured manually. It is as the network scales that a DHCP server becomes necessary.

Additionally, having more than one DHCP server on a network can cause many issues. Just like having multiple production managers could result in a lot of confusion, multiple DHCP servers will cause network conflicts.

Once we have a network up and running between physically connected devices, it is time to start branching out into connecting devices wirelessly. This is where access points come in.