DHCP

Dynamic Host Configurations Protocol(DHCP) is a protocol that give an IP to the host with its own IP address, gives it a subnet mask and a default gateway. The process happens in four stages.

1. The host that wants to join a network finds a DHCP server, it broadcasts a DHCP discovery message over the network. At this point the host has no subnet address or the IP of the DHCP server, so it just broadcasts to all nodes.