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Reverse Address Resolution Protocol

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Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is a network layer protocol used to resolve an IP address from a given hardware address (such as an Ethernet address). It has been rendered obsolete by BOOTP and the more modern DHCP, which both support a much greater feature set than RARP.

The primary limitations of RARP are that each MAC must be manually configured on a central server, and that the protocol only conveys an IP address. This leaves configuration of subnetting, gateways, and other information to other protocols or the user.

Another limitation of RARP compared to BOOTP or DHCP is that it is a non-IP protocol. This means that like ARP it can't be handled by the TCP/IP stack on the client, but is instead implemented separately.

RARP is the complement of ARP. RARP is described in RFC 903.

See also

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