The DORA Lease Process

When a device joins a network, it gets its DHCP address through a four-step exchange remembered by the word DORA: Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge. Each step is a separate message between the client and the DHCP server. Understanding DORA helps you picture exactly what happens in the first second of connecting, and it makes troubleshooting clearer when one of the steps fails.

The new client has no address yet, so it cannot send to a specific server. Instead it sends a DHCP Discover as a broadcast, meaning every device on the local network hears it. The message essentially shouts, Is there a DHCP server out there? Because it is a broadcast, any DHCP server on the same network segment will receive it and can respond.