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I'm looking for a solution for a home server that is not live all the time.

I'm playing around with AD/DNS/DHCP. Only problem is that when I want to use my server DHCP service that I'm required to disable the routers built in DHCP service.

This means that when I want to surf the web quickly for something that I'm required to turn on my home server.

Is there some way to make my server override the routers DHCP service?

Second problem would be that if something like this is possible, all the connected machines (to the router) will probably not renew their IP's automatically and simply continue using the ones they got from the router.

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    serverfault.com/questions/368512/…
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 17:52
  • Turn off DHCP on the server and use the router as your full-time DHCP source.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 18:35
  • @Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 That is the main issue here. That will require to run my server 24/7. I would rather find a solution for when the server is off while not crippling my home network when doing that. Since I'm not using it the entire day, it would be a huge waste of energy.
    – Jens Ackou
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 18:38
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    I think you misunderstood me. Turn off DHCP on the server, and use the router as your DHCP server 24/7; regardless of whether the Windows server is on or not. The only thing you'll lose by doing that is dynamic DNS updates handled by DHCP (assuming you even set that up in the first place), which shouldn't be a big deal on a small home network.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 18:42
  • @Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Hmm, indeed I did misread that. No, I didn't set anything up for the DNS part but if it's lost I'll probably not get any experience using the service. You're making me think about doing it the casual way. Pushing the button when I arrive home and set up the auto sign in trick. Top notch security though :) ..
    – Jens Ackou
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 18:55

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No there is not some way to make my server override the routers DHCP service.

Once a client gets a DHCP response and accepts it then it doesn't go out and ask again until an internal timer expires. It is also not possible for a server to send an unsolicited DHCP response which a client will accept.

One question however, are not the DHCP settings sent by the Server not valid? If they are valid it should not interfere with anything even if the Server is turned off as the clients dont care that the server has gone they will just use the settings they have until their timer expires.

If the DHCP this is not true then you can set the Lease time to very short - so when the clients re-request (at half the lease time I think) they wont see the power hungry server and will instead see the router (power friendly) server response

The only thing to do is make sure the DHCP IP addresses for the two servers have any addresses in common so that they dont hand out conflicting addresses. There may be an option of the DHCP server doing a ping before allocating an address.

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  • I've taken the router and looked at the set DHCP range. Even though it's turned off, I'm staying outside this range for rare occasions I have to re-enable the router DHCP + an ISP defined range has been set for digital tv decoders. Then I've set a range on my server for when it's turned on and yes you are right. My girlfriend was working on her laptop with a IP, leased from the day before. (I went out for work and also left the server off) This is actually an unintended solution.
    – Jens Ackou
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 20:18
  • Also a little extra. Ran into the issue that DNS wasn't working out. Solved this by using the server IP as primary DNS and the router as secondary. When the server is out, the router will still do the job ... Feeling a little more educated now :)
    – Jens Ackou
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 20:22

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