>> Most "better" DHCP servers allow a sort of "static" DHCP where you
>> statically set the IP of each client at the DHCP server. The DHCP
>> server, on recieving a DHCP request, checks the requests MAC, cross
>> references it to it's internal list, and hands out the static IP.
>>
>> The benefit is that while everything is static, everything can be
>> changed at only one spot, the DHCP server.
>
>The downside to this is that ideally you'd want to support moving to
>different networks. Or at least,  I would want to support that. My
>thought is that being able to roam from a DHCP network (your server)
>to a DHCP network (someone else's server) to a static IP network
>should all be possible. I recognize that you might have to run a PC
>based program to get the nodes flipped to the new config, but the
>innate capability would still be there.

This is the way my laptop is configured, and the lab network uses the MAC
address to assign an IP number. Because some lab areas are in different IP
villages they configure things this way so that laptops can be used almost
anywhere, once the DHCP is set up.

I assume Josh's original query starts from a point of producing a reasonable
number of devices, which then need configuring with a minimum of effort. Is
there some reason why one cannot configure the device with a "standard" MAC
address, and DHCP, plug it into a test network, and then from a PC sent it a
heap of info such as its permanent MAC address, a node name, and if required
a permanent IP address, setting it to use that instead of DHCP. Send a
message to write that lot into EEPROM and reboot.

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