Which technology would you use to allocate IP addresses automatically to clients?

The correct choice is the DHCP server function, which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This technology is specifically designed to automatically allocate IP addresses to clients on a network. When a device connects to the network, it sends a request to the DHCP server, which then assigns an available IP address from a predefined range, along with other configuration details such as subnet mask, gateway, and DNS servers.

Using DHCP simplifies network administration by reducing the need for manual IP address assignment, which can be error-prone and time-consuming. This automatic process also helps prevent IP address conflicts, as the DHCP server keeps track of which addresses are in use and ensures that no two devices are assigned the same IP address.

In contrast, static IP configuration requires a network administrator to manually set IP addresses for each device, which does not scale well in larger networks. Network Address Translation (NAT) is primarily used to translate private IP addresses to a public address for facilitating communication over the internet, while Access Point Protocol pertains to wireless connections and does not deal with IP address allocation.