Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 09:25:55 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: FreeBSD Questions <FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: interpretation of arp output Message-ID: <20021129092555.GA64345@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <20021129054715.GA869@raggedclown.net> References: <20021129054715.GA869@raggedclown.net>
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On Fri, Nov 29, 2002 at 06:47:15AM +0100, Cliff Sarginson wrote:
> An arp -a gives the following line (amongst many happy bunnies)
>
> angelus.raggedclown.intra (192.168.1.50) at 00:a0:cc:d1:fb:88 on rl0
> [ethernet]
> ? (192.168.1.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on rl0 permanent [ethernet]
That's quite normal. Some process is sending out packets to your
network broadcast address. You can investigate what with tcpdump:
tcpdump -i rl0 ip broadcast
tcpdump -i rl0 ether broadcast
> Can someone explain this to me .. the line with the "?" obviously.
> Whether it is relevant or not the line above represents a Windows
> XP system that does not get run very often (which means it may always
> be there, but I have never noticed it).
No: the entries in the arp table are just ordered by IP number.
The machine 'angelus' just happens to be the next highest IP number
active on your network.
The '?' just means that the system can't resolve that IP number into a
hostname. You can add entries for 192.168.1.255 to your /etc/hosts or
your DNS so that arp will have something to print out if you want.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
Savill Way
Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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