The first of these packets is from your computer to the DHCP server telling it to release the
lease on your IP address. The next 4 packets renew that lease. Note that the source address on
the “DHCP Discover” and “DHCP Request” packets is 0.0.0.0. This indicates that your
computer does not actually use its new IP address until the interchange has completed. Also note
that the destination address in each of the 4 packets is a broadcast address1
. It should be obvious
to you why the first two packets are broadcasted, but what about the last two? Can you explain
this?