/etc/dhclient.conf Information on configuring the DHCP client can be found in . Note that you only need the DHCP server if you want to issue LAN addresses over your network. The DHCP client doesn't need this script to be used. Also note that this script is coded for the eth1 interface, which may need to be modified for your hardware configuration. Install the /etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcp init script included in the package. make install-dhcp The lease file must exist on startup. The following command will satisfy that requirement: touch /var/state/dhcp/dhcpd.leases The following commands will create a base configuration file for a DHCP server. There are several options that you may want to add (information that is passed back to the DHCP client) and those are covered in the man pages for dhcp.conf. cat > /etc/dhcpd.conf << "EOF" default-lease-time 72000; max-lease-time 144000; ddns-update-style ad-hoc; subnet [192.168.5.0] netmask [255.255.255.0] { range [192.168.5.10] [192.168.5.240]; option broadcast-address [195.168.5.255]; option routers [192.168.5.1]; } EOF All addresses should be changed to meet your circumstance.