Real basic question, but how does the ARP List determine which IP address is ‘talking’ to which MAC address? I am trying to get a wireless AP up and running. I see its MAC address in the ARP List, but the IP address it is associated with doesn’t make any sense (the IP address appears to be talking to a wireless virtual controller on a different subnet).
What should my steps be to figure out what’s going on here?
I have tried setting a static ARP route but it is ignored and a new route is automatically created within a few seconds.
The dynamic entries are populated from ARP protocol replies - when a device wants to communicate with something on the same subnet as itself it will broadcast an ARP request, e.g. ‘Who has 192.168.1.2’ and if the target exists it should reply with ‘00:01:02:03:04:05 has 192.168.1.2’, for example. Having to set static ARP entries (they are not routes) is most uncommon.
What wireless system are you using? Mikrotik CAPsMAN and other manufacturers have tunneling between the controller and APs so the traffic appears from the controller, not the AP.
Thanks for the reply. I am using HP Aruba APs. The controller is virtual and I believe it is the same physical device as the AP (once it is set as a master) although I could be wrong…
So why is the mac address of the AP i’m trying to configure, ‘talking’ to a virtual controller on a different subnet?