ARP Protocol: Address Resolution protocol resolves an IP into MAC address. Systems keep an ARP look-up table where they store information about what IP addresses are associated with what MAC addresses. When trying to send a packet to an IP address, the system will first consult this table to see if it already knows the MAC address. If there is a value cached, ARP is not used. If the IP address is not found in the ARP table, the system will then send a broadcast packet to the network using the ARP protocol to ask "who has 192.168.1.1". Because it is a broadcast packet, it is sent to a special MAC address that causes all machines on the network to receive it. Any machine with the requested IP address will reply with an ARP packet that says "I am 192.168.1.1", and this includes the MAC address which can receive packets for that IP.
Commands:
Usage:
arp [-vn] [<HW>] [-i <if>] [-a] [<hostname>] <-Display ARP cache
arp [-v] [-i <if>] -d <host> [pub] <-Delete ARP entry
arp [-vnD] [<HW>] [-i <if>] -f [<filename>] <-Add entry from file
arp [-v] [<HW>] [-i <if>] -s <host> <hwaddr> [temp] <-Add entry
arp [-v] [<HW>] [-i <if>] -Ds <host> <if> [netmask <nm>] pub <-''-
-a display (all) hosts in alternative (BSD) style
-e display (all) hosts in default (Linux) style
-s, --set set a new ARP entry
-d, --delete delete a specified entry
-v, --verbose be verbose
-n, --numeric don't resolve names
-i, --device specify network interface (e.g. eth0)
-D, --use-device read <hwaddr> from given device
-A, -p, --protocol specify protocol family
-f, --file read new entries from file or from /etc/ethers
<HW>=Use '-H <hw>' to specify hardware address type. Default: ether
List of possible hardware types (which support ARP):
ash (Ash) ether (Ethernet) ax25 (AMPR AX.25)
netrom (AMPR NET/ROM) rose (AMPR ROSE) arcnet (ARCnet)
dlci (Frame Relay DLCI) fddi (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) hippi (HIPPI)
irda (IrLAP) x25 (generic X.25) infiniband (InfiniBand)
