
This message is sent to all devices within the same segment or LAN through a broadcast MAC (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) as the destination. The local computer sends an ARP REQUEST message to find the owner of the IP address in question. ARP uses two types of messages, ARP Request and Reply. The local computer only knows its source/destination IP and its source MAC addresses.


In this article, we’ll show you how to find all ip addresses on a network along with device vendors using MAC addresses with different methods for free. But RARP is an obsolete protocol with many disadvantages, so it was quickly replaced by other protocols like BOOTP and DHCP, which deal directly with IP addresses. Or your computer is unable to display its IP due to various reasons, and you are getting a “No Valid IP Address” error.įinding the IP from a known MAC address should be the task of a ReverseARP application, the counterpart of ARP. You might be in a situation where you don’t have the IP address of a device in a local network, but all you have is records of the MAC or hardware address. How would you communicate with a device when you don’t have the IP?
