ARP problem

wes109 · 27-03-2009, 19:11

hello, A few days ago I lost my Internet connection and it came back on again within a few hours. however, I noticed my modem recieve light constantly flickering. so, I used wireshark to see what was up, and noticed there is a constant flood of ARP packet requests being sent to my Machine. my question is this: is this normal? and is anyone else experiencing the same thing?

btw I checked on VirginMedia's website to see if there was maintenance downtime in my area at that time and it said my area is ok.

Milambar · 27-03-2009, 19:18

I believe its actually normal.

Matth · 27-03-2009, 21:39

Interesting... Broadband through STB has NO ARP flicker - it used to, until some change.

In general, you tend to appear as if you are on a LAN segment, so you do see some internet flak, the other thing, is if you have no NAT router, you need to be sure any PC software firewall does not consider the supposed "LAN" to be warm and friendly.

Ignitionnet · 27-03-2009, 23:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matth

Interesting... Broadband through STB has NO ARP flicker - it used to, until some change.

Depends on your area, a config change can be made so that the CMTS instead of ARPing for MACs will consult the DHCP server for the mappings, this will apply to all devices attached to the CMTS.

Upside - it stops the ARP noise, downside - it increases loading on the DHCPs and CPU load marginally on the CMTS.