i'd like to know if it's possible for the internet to be between a DHCP server and the network it's "assigned" to? so basically, something like this:

 --------------                    -------------        -------------
|  DHCP Server |                  |    DHCP     |      |   Clients   |
|              |-----Internet-----| Relay Agent |------| 192.168.0.* |
|              |                  | 192.168.0.1 |      |             |
 --------------                    -------------        -------------

the behavior i'm seeing is that the DHCP server is offering 192.168.0.* IPs and sending them back to 192.168.0.1, which it can't reach. i tried masquerading the packets sent by the relay agent but that doesn't seem to work. from what i've been reading, this is normal behavior since the DHCP server uses the GIADDR as the destination address for its OFFERs, and not the actual source IP of the packets it receives from the relay agent.

sooo, given that my DHCP server needs to be "on the other side of the internet" as depicted above, how can i get this working? are there settings for dhcpd to do this or is creating a VPN containing the DHCP server and the relay agent the only way?

thanks!