CentOS - Jan 2012 - dhcp lease-time

Why is the default lease-time set to only 10 minutes (600 seconds)
in /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf (CentOS-6.2) as distributed?

Why is not set to a much longer time?
Is there any disadvantage in doing that?
Or conversely, is a short lease-time safer in some way?

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin

On Thu, 5 Jan 2012, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Why is the default lease-time set to only 10 minutes (600 seconds)
> in /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf (CentOS-6.2) as distributed?
I assume the dull answer is: because that's what Redhat set it to.
> Why is not set to a much longer time?
What length do you think the correct default should be?
> Is there any disadvantage in doing that?
> Or conversely, is a short lease-time safer in some way?
Short lease times work better with very transient devices, since the IP
address is returned to the pool much faster when a machine disconnects but
doesn't release the DHCP lease.

jh