Rapid DHCP: Or, how do Macs get on the network so fast?

I've always wondered why my Mac jumps right on the network, while other devices such as my Xbox 360 take a few seconds before the connection is there.

I'd be interested to see how the Google Chrome CR-48 handles DHCP since it seems like it takes a bit of time before getting online and allowing me to log in to it.

ChromeOS is based on linux, so I'd expect something similar to what Android does: userland dhclient with the same performance profile as the tablet he tested.

"Chrome OS" is Gentoo, not Android. One of my friends has a Cr47 and some hacking exposed dhcpcd inside, with some unspecified patching to bring it down to sub-second DHCP.

I believe that Android also uses dhcpcd, if I recall correctly from recently browsing the source code. I do not know whether or how Android's dhcpcd may be modified.

I think I'd still prefer the standards compliant client, even if it was a slightly slower. Kicking other users off the network isn't a good thing.

I'm the author of the original blog post. I also ran my tests with a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. Its DHCP Vendor-Class string is "dhcpcd 5.1.4". The DHCP performance seems fair, around 2 seconds. However, the total network initialization time tends to be a bit longer. It may have some of the same link establishment delays that I'm seeing on my Ubuntu 10.04 EeePC.