Appendix A

Using BOOTP to configure the IP address

BOOTP is an alternative to rarp that has the advantage of allowing configuration of the subnet mask and gateway. In order to use BOOTP to configure the IP address make sure that BOOTP is installed and running on your host computer (it should appear in the /etc/services file on your host as a real service; type man bootpd or refer to your system documentation for information). BOOTP is usually started up via the /etc/inetd.conf file, so you may need to enable it by removing the “#” in front of the bootp entry in that file. For example, a typical bootp entry in the /etc/inetd.conf file would be:

#bootp dgram udp wait /usr/etc/bootpd bootpd -i

Depending on the system, this entry might be called “bootps” instead of “bootp”.

Note

In order to enable BOOTP, simply use an editor to delete the “#” (if there is no “#”, then BOOTP is already enabled). Then edit the BOOTP configuration file (usually /etc/bootptab) and enter the name, network type (1 for Ethernet), Ethernet address and the IP address, subnet mask and gateway of the print server.

Unfortunately, the exact format for doing this is not standardized, so you will need to refer to your system

documentation to determine how to enter this information (many UNIX® systems also have template examples in the bootptab file that you can use for reference). Some examples of typical /etc/bootptab entries include: (“BRN” below is “BRW” for a wireless network.)

BRN008077310107 1 00:80:77:31:01:07 192.189.207.3

and:

BRN008077310107:ht=ethernet:ha=008077310107:\ip=192.189.207.3:

Certain BOOTP host software implementations will not respond to BOOTP requests if you have not included a download filename in the configuration file; if this is the case, simply create a null file on the host and specify the name of this file and its path in the configuration file.

As with rarp, the print server will load its IP address from the BOOTP server when the machine is powered on.

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