272 - Cant seem to understand rarp,arp,lmhosts,hosts

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Hi, I'm new to this forum, but hope someone could help me or at least explain this without the use of words that have not yet been covered in the 272.

Also does rarp have the same cache enabled as arp?

I appreciate any replys,

Dave

 

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ARP: displays and modifies entries in the Address Resolution protocol cache, which stores IP addresses.

RARP: is the Reverse Address Resolution Protocol, it resolves the IP address for a given link-layer address.

lmhosts: is a local text file that maps NetBIOS name to IP addresses for hosts that are not on the local subnet.

Hosts: is used to associate host names to IP addresses

 

Further to Johnd76's post the lmhosts file and hosts file can be found in: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ these are used for name resolution when you do not have a DNS server / WINS server

A host file stores the IP address and the 'friendly' name (or host name) of that address e.g. 192.168.2.53 ChrisPC
if you put in \\ChrisPC into a web browser it would know to point you to 192.168.2.53

A Lmhosts file is supported in Windows XP but is a legacy feature. LMHOSTS uses the NetBios name of the computer to connect (basically all computers had to have a NetBios name that was a max of 15 characters), it works in much the same way as the hosts file. Computer name points to the network address.

You could use these in a home environment or in a small business environment as it takes time to update the hosts/lmhosts file as it needs to be updated on each computer. Whereas a DNS or WINS server automatically does the naming resolution for you.

I hope this helps,

 

Ahhh thanks! you cudn't better the wording it seems alot easier now thanks I really appreciate it, one more thing do you know if rarp saves results in cache? aswell as arp? Also netbios name is that the computer name or the is the computer name the host name?

Regards!


Regards,

 

hmmm....good question, I don't think (my knowledge on this isn't great) RARP does have its own cache as a machine using RARP protocol requests its IP address from the router / gateway or whatever is giving out leases. Whereas ARP maps an IP address to a machines MAC and the ARP cache keeps a record of the recent MAC addresses that last connected etc.

Normally both host name and NetBios name are the computer name and chosen when windows is installed.

Good luck with the 272!

 

Thanks mate I appreciate it! Its always easier when someone explains it to you after hours of studying the book

 

yep..

DNS maps IP addresses to FQDN for example, it maps 74.125.19.104 to www.google.com and does automatically what the 'hosts file' does manually.

WINS (legacy) automatically maps IP addresses to NetBIOS names i.e what the lmhosts file does 'manually'.

Microsoft have been trying to move away from WINS and rely totally on DNS for the past decade or more.

 

RARP is obsolete as it has been succeeded long ago by BOOTP ie DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).