Which term describes a component that relays DHCP messages between clients and a remote DHCP server?

• A. DHCP Relay Agent
• B. Dial-ups
• C. Direct
• D. Diffserv

Answer: (A)

DHCP relay is the mechanism that forwards DHCP messages between clients and a remote DHCP server, allowing address configuration across different subnets. When a client on one network broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER, a DHCP relay agent on a router receives it and forwards the request to the central DHCP server, using unicast to port 67 and placing the client’s network information in the GIADDR field so the server knows which subnet to allocate from. The server responds to the relay agent, which then forwards the reply to the client. This setup solves the broadcast limitation of DHCP across subnets, since routers don’t forward broadcasts by default. The other terms don’t describe this function—dial-ups refer to remote access connections, Diffserv relates to QoS, and Direct isn’t a DHCP term.