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ARP Broadcasts

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by carsten.holfelder

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Hi, I have got a problem and that is that I am getting a lot of ARP request broadcasts. I have got a windows 2000 active directory domain, I am running DHCP and WINS on the domain. What is happening a ARP broadcast is sent asking for the MAC addressof a specific IP Address and the reply is directed directly back. Even my switches in my network are doing it. I know why they need the MAC Address it is just that with close to 1500 computers excluding the network equipment, there is a lot of broadcasts being sent. Isn't there a way that I can get the request to be directed to the WINS or DHCP to resolve the MAC address instead of a broadcast being sent out. Thanks

2 replies

by tech010

The only way I can see this being done is to increase the ARP cache time, which you can do via a DHCP server. You can't redirect ARP broadcasts as they are the nature of ethernet, unfortunatly. I hope this helps, I don't know of any other way to do it. I've struggled with this one also.

by carsten.holfelder

This is acceptable for small networks - but when the network gets on the large size with a lot of equipment on it, it has the tendancy to use a lot of memory just for keeping arp resolutions. On the actual computers this inst a problem, but when it comes to switches it becomes a bit of a problem as they have got limited memory.

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