ARP -A Performs Badly When ARP Cache Contains Many Addresses

ID: Q145587

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51, 4.00
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.00

SYMPTOMS

When you have several hundred IP addresses in your ARP cache, the execution of the arp -a command can take an hour or more. To get this many addresses in your cache, you have to increase ArpCacheLife.

CAUSE

ARP is using SNMP to retrieve the contents of the ARP cache. The SNMP agent is not designed to query large numbers of objects.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT Server and Workstation versions 3.51 and 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords : kbnetwork kbtool kbbug4.00 ntprotocol kbbug3.51 NTSrvWkst
Version : 3.51 4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type :