The duration for which a DHCP server loans an IP address to a DHCP client. You can configure the lease duration using the Microsoft Windows NT administrative tool DHCP Manager or the Windows 2000 console snap-in.
If your TCP/IP network configuration doesn’t change often or if you have more than enough IP addresses in your assigned IP address pool, you can increase the DHCP lease considerably beyond its default value of three days. However, if your network configuration changes frequently or if you have a limited pool of IP addresses that is almost used up, keep the reservation period short - perhaps one day. The reason is that if the pool of available IP addresses is used up, machines that are added or moved might be unable to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server and thus will be unable to participate in network communication.