I am trying to find out how to reduce the number of broadcasting nodes on our network. Out of 400 pc's, about 50-60 of them are constantly broadcasting and I have been told that this can greatly reduce network performance. I read somewhere about increasing the ARP aging time to compensate for this, but have been unsuccessful at finding a real solution. Can anyone help me, and if I need to be more specific please let me know. Thanks
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Too many broadcasts
- Thread starter Kyusaku
- Start date
You are right - lots of broadcasts reduce network performance. I assume you are using switches to speed up your net but broadcasts are always transmitted to every port on a switch and that really affects the performance.
I would use a protocol decoder to determine what that broadcasts are. Some of them are normal but if you get a lot you should try to find out what causes the broadcasts.
If your broadcasts are arp requests you should look at them why the PC tries to communicate with that IP.
Hope that helps
I would use a protocol decoder to determine what that broadcasts are. Some of them are normal but if you get a lot you should try to find out what causes the broadcasts.
If your broadcasts are arp requests you should look at them why the PC tries to communicate with that IP.
Hope that helps
CCIEWANNABE
MIS
Question is your network fully switched?
Segment the network with additional broadcast doamins or create VLANs.
Replace some of your bridges/switchs with routers.
Reduce Browser requests?
Verify that print servers are not broadcasting to protocols not in use on your network.
Turn off NetBEUI.
Increaseing the ARP aging time is an administratice nightmare. Periodic broadcasting is definitely not desired. The default ARP aging-time is ten minutes if i recall correctly. Perhaps manually resetting (or clearing) the address mapping table will suffice. Route once; switch many
Segment the network with additional broadcast doamins or create VLANs.
Replace some of your bridges/switchs with routers.
Reduce Browser requests?
Verify that print servers are not broadcasting to protocols not in use on your network.
Turn off NetBEUI.
Increaseing the ARP aging time is an administratice nightmare. Periodic broadcasting is definitely not desired. The default ARP aging-time is ten minutes if i recall correctly. Perhaps manually resetting (or clearing) the address mapping table will suffice. Route once; switch many
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks for the quick responses, unfortunately our network is mostly hubs (10mb weee)and I am sure that this is probably the primary cause of all the broadcasts. We are in the process of obtain new switches and I will look at implementing some lan routers. Thanks again
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