What is the security benefit of static IP over DHCP

[melijak]

My network has cable internet going through the router into PC. I also have work laptop that I connect wirelessly. I dont have admin rights on the laptop. If I set up static IP on the PC will I still be able to connect with the laptop? File sharing is not important.
I also have forwarded a port tcp/udp traffic for bittorrent. ANd I'm planing to add second PC in the future.

 

[Brazen]

That should work fine as long as you set the static IPs on the same subnet as what DHCP is handing out. You probably want to make sure the static IPs you set are excluded from the DHCP range though.

 

[melijak]

So you wouldn't recommend disabling DHCP. What would be the security benefit of this setup?

 

[Nothinman]

There's no security benefit either way, using DHCP is just lead maintenance overhead since you only need to change network settings in one place and they propogate to all clients.

 

[melijak]

If I setup a static IP on the router, I will need to setup ip address in win XP also right?

If my cable (comcast) uses an DHCP for ip configuration, will I have a problem with setting my IP address outside the DHCP scope, leaving the DHCP enabled?

Thanks for the replies by the way.

 

[nweaver]

no DHCP keeps out casual non technical wireless snoopers (assuming you have no encryption/authentication) because they don't know how to sniff and find the valid settings, such as ip ranges, subnet mask, and gateway.

 

[kevnich2]

If your DHCP range is 192.168.0.100-150 (just an example) and you set a static IP of 192.168.0.80, as long as your gateway & DNS information is correct, everything will work just fine.

 

[Nothinman]

no DHCP keeps out casual non technical wireless snoopers (assuming you have no encryption/authentication) because they don't know how to sniff and find the valid settings, such as ip ranges, subnet mask, and gateway.

They don't have to know how, just about all of the good wireless tools will sniff that out for you.

 

[melijak]

I will have to set it up in both windows and on the router, correct?

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

no DHCP keeps out casual non technical wireless snoopers (assuming you have no encryption/authentication) because they don't know how to sniff and find the valid settings, such as ip ranges, subnet mask, and gateway.

They don't have to know how, just about all of the good wireless tools will sniff that out for you.

Netstumbler, probably the most used by non technical people (as far as I have seen) doesn't.


I know that kismet does, but if someone knows how to setup kismet, dhcp/nondhcp won't matter.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: melijak
If I setup a static IP on the router, I will need to setup ip address in win XP also right?

If my cable (comcast) uses an DHCP for ip configuration, will I have a problem with setting my IP address outside the DHCP scope, leaving the DHCP enabled?

Thanks for the replies by the way.

As already stated, there really is no security benefit to disabling DHCP. Now, DHCP between your router and Comcast has no affect on DHCP between your router and your home computers. You router acts as a DHCP client to Comcast, and completely independant of that, your router acts as a DHCP server to your home network. Nothing with Comcast is going to interfere with your home network, and vice versa.

As long as you stick to 192.168 addresses (there are other subnets you could use, but this is the most common), you will be fine for your static IPs. Your router will probably only handle a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, which means the third octet will also need to be the same (1 is the most common 3rd octet), so your static ip will need to be set to 192.168.1.something, again making sure that the "something" is not in the range that your DHCP server on your router hands out.

I hope this helps, and doesn't just make things more confusing.