ARP question

Ed Greshko Ed.Greshko at greshko.com
Thu Jun 21 00:26:01 UTC 2007


Ian Chapman wrote:
> Steve Reid wrote:
>> I installed wireshark and noticed that I am broadcasting ARP "who has"
>> requests to the world. (about 1000 a minute) I've googled all day
>> don't have any good answers.
>>
>> Any help on where to start to fix this would be appreciated.
>>
>> I'm Running FC5 and FC6 as a mailserver/ftp/mailman and they both seem
>> to be doing the same thing.
> 
> I'm not sure whether you mean "ARP requests" are the problem or whether
> you mean the number of them is the problem but ARP requests are normal.
> It's how the network discovers the hardware address (eg MAC address)
> from the IP address. 1000 per minute seems high to me but then it
> depends on your traffic levels.

Along with that, ARP requests are only sent to the local network and not
"the world".  They don't survive past a router since, as noted above, their
purpose is to obtain the MAC address equated to an IP address and MAC
addresses are only used on the local subnet.

A network configuration error could explain what you are seeing.  However,
without additional information we can't help much.



-- 
The sooner our happiness together begins, the longer it will last.
		-- Miramanee, "The Paradise Syndrome", stardate 4842.6




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