Does a computer always have the same IP address or is it designated a new one every time the computer is turned on?

For the purposes of this assignment, you can safely assume that every machine is assigned a fixed IP address when it is first connected to the network and that this address remains fixed. This is the way IP addresses are assigned to many machines.

To give you an accurate answer, however, I must admit that many machines are assigned temporary addresses each time they are turned on. There is a protocol named DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) designed to make this possible. When a machine is turned on, it sends a broadcast message asking any DHCP server on its network for an IP address. The machine then also needs to periodically inform the DHCP server that it is still using the address so that the DCHP server doesn't use if for any other machine until the original machine is turned off again.

Tom