Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET)Network SecurityMedium
A network administrator needs to quickly identify the MAC address associated with a specific IP address on the local network to troubleshoot a connectivity issue. Which command-line utility would be most effective for this task on a Windows system?
- Aping
- Bnetstat -an
- Ctracert
- Darp -a
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. arp -a
The 'arp -a' command displays the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache, which maps IP addresses to MAC addresses on the local network, directly addressing the requirement.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Ping tests network reachability to an IP address but doesn't show MAC addresses.
- B. Netstat -an shows active network connections and listening ports, not IP-MAC mappings.
- C. Tracert (traceroute) displays the path packets take to a destination, not local IP-MAC mappings.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
A communication protocol used to discover the MAC address associated with a given IP address on a local area network (LAN).
- Operates at the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) and Network Layer (Layer 3).
- Translates IP addresses to MAC addresses.
- Maintains an ARP cache to store recent mappings.
- Used for local network communication (within the same broadcast domain).
Memory trick: ARP is like asking 'Who has this phone number (IP address)?' and getting the answer 'That's me, here's my physical address (MAC address)!'