950 ip address windows 2003 dhcp?

While you could use a lapop (DHCP is not heavy on resources) for 950 IPs - (if you are going to use a classful address then it will have to be a class B). there are many reasons why you should look at the configuration again. almost 1000 machines on a single subnet are going to generate a lot of broadcast and other background traffic which will make the network very inefficient.

i am open to any ideas... how would you do it?  it is for a 2 ballrooms in a hotel.

2 rooms suggests to me two subnets - one for each room

... this may help http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758865(WS.10).aspx

would i need 2 dhcp servers?  or do you mean i create on the same dhcp server exp. 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1 with the subnet mask 255.255.0.0?  im trying to understand... my apologies.  

since it is temporary make it simple for yourself and just create a class B dhcp scope 10.1.0.0/16 .The more important question is, will this dhcp scope need to communicate with an existing network? If so then more thought needs to be put in this to ensure there is no IP overlapping between your existing network and the one you are trying to create. What would this dhcp network be used for? will it connect to internet? ensure that your router knows about this new subnet

If you have 950 devices on a wireless network your wireless is going to choke way before your DHCP server. I think you need to talk to someone who has dealt with a wireless network that large before. Think about it, if the wi-fi access point was on gigabit Ethernet, each client would have less than 1 mb of available bandwidth, way less when you factor in wireless overhead, and that is assuming that your access point could even provide 1 Gb of wireless bandwidth, which is several 802.11N radios put together.

i am using 2 Xirrus XN16 (http://www.xirrus.com/products/product_brief_xn16.php)  which have 2 GB ports per unit.  I will be setting up 950 ipads to connect to a local server.  No internet only local network.  very small data between each ipad to the server. should i just use a class B or 2 subnets?  I want this event to go as smooth as possible.

I would do whatever Xirrus recommends for the network. In terms of number of networks. I have never run a network quite that large, and certainly not all in the same room(s). DHCP under Windows 2003 on a dual core laptop won't be any problem. How much RAM do you have? I think 256 MB would be enough, 512 would be better, and anything above that would be gravy.

yea that is a big network. my suggestion is class B.

The DHCP server needs to reflect the underlying physical wireless networks. Maybe there will be 1 network, maybe 20. If there is more than 1 network there will need to be a router, and the router will need to forward DHCP requests to the laptop. If you are going to have multiple networks (and hopefully you do), you should make sure that there are plenty of DHCP addresses available in case the networks aren't balanced. Not a bad idea to make every DHCP scope a /16 just to be sure that whatever happends you don't run out of addresses.

That would look like
10.0.0.0/16
10.1.0.0/16
10.2.0.0/16
10.3.0.0/16
etc.

Is there anywhere I can find out how to make this?  I have only created a dhcp scope with 256 addresses...

to create a /16 scope, when you are creating it, use the following

Start IP 10.0.0.1
End IP 10.0.255.254
Length 16
Subnet 255.255.0.0

Nivlesh didn't leave room for a gateway address. Be sure not to include the gateway and other static IPs in the range, or do an exclusion.

sorry kevinhsiegh. yea thats correct

One big thing sticks out here - 950 clients for 2 APs????????

This will NEVER work, no matter how small the amount of data you are transferring per client.
Either the AP will run out of resources or it will only allow say 256 clients to connect to it (typical MAC limits), and if you want to connect 950 clients you would need at least 4 APs based on that theory.  That is only an assumption though, but I would be really surprised if you don't have problems.



However, in answer to your question -  to assign 950 IP addresses you would need at least a /22 IP range.


I would do what Kevinhsieh and Nivlesh are suggesting, use a /16 for ease of configuration.
I doubt you will be able to segment this (using VLANs) so you will have to use all 950 IP addresses from one scope on the DHCP server.

I have no idea why I was thinking /16, yes /22 is all you need.

so length 22?  will i be able to exclude 10 ip address?  maybe for the server?  These wifi arrays have 16 internal APs each.  I will run this by the manufacture just to be sure, but i have used their smaller array for 150 ipad in one room and it worked flawlessly.