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authorThomas Habets <thomas@habets.pp.se>2000-05-19 16:19:14 +0000
committerThomas Habets <thomas@habets.pp.se>2000-05-19 16:19:14 +0000
commitfb7ca4cad1e714eeaffd505eedcb3df7656e1371 (patch)
treea14a3e4bec23b5468d2c5e5f8443e8f0f84fa8a0 /README
parentcc638da8dbeee7deb3eceda316d513856f3265e0 (diff)
downloadarping-fb7ca4cad1e714eeaffd505eedcb3df7656e1371.tar.gz
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+
+---
+Q: after compiling arping without any problem, i test it first with
+ localhost... but it doesn't respond. Isn't that strange?
+
+A: Not really, as you can see by typing 'ifconfig' the lo (local) interface
+ does not have a MAC address. It's not a physical device! MAC addresses are
+ there to differentiate computers on a shared medium (the aether, or ether)
+ and since packets to localhost does not go over any wire there is no need
+ to identify which box is talking to which. There is only one.
+---
+Q: Arping find some hosts, but not others. why? btw, I have several NICs.
+
+A: You have to choose interface with the -i switch if the default is wrong for
+ you.
+---
+Q: I tried to ping my own MAC addr, but it doesn't work.
+
+A: A sane OS will think it's suspicios if you send packets to yourself over
+ the wire and will ignore them.
+
+ And why would you want to lookup the IP or MAC of yourself? ifconfig
+ can tell you that.
+---
+Q: I can't ping any MAC address on my LAN.
+
+A: Are they windows boxen?
+ <technical>
+ Arping sends arp-directed broadcast (so it does NOT go to anyone but the
+ target) pings to the MAC and checks the IP address of the responding
+ packet. I seem to recall windows boxen answer oddly or not at all to
+ broadcast pings, but since I don't have a windows box, I haven't tested.
+ I will test it, but I don't know if there is any good way around it. Sure,
+ if I get a broadcast address back at least I can tell the machine is on the
+ LAN but then again, the OS will probably cache the MAC so you can just run
+ 'arp' and see if the MAC is in there after the packet should have come back.
+ </technical>
+ <non-technical>
+ Windows sucks
+ </non-technical>