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With an MPLS of one host and one remote, when I go to Windows Explorer and bring up "Network", is the list supposed to be populated with the devices on both subnets?

If not, can it be made to do so?

For background info, if I type arp -a at the commandline, it does not list the devices of the other subnet. This is the case both at the host and at the remote. Is it supposed to?

Sometimes when I enter that command, I can see one or two addresses in the arp table, for example, the gateway on the host subnet always shows in the arp list. Sometimes I have manually connected to them, other times I haven't. Why would these show?

bgmCoder
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1 Answers1

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  1. Windows network browsing doesn't work across subnets without WINS unless broadcast traffic can transit the subnets. So no, it shouldn't work (assuming that MPLS works like every other WAN works regarding broadcast traffic).

  2. ARP will never show you the MAC addresses for hosts that are not on the same network/subnet. When a host needs to communicate with a host on another network/subnet it does not ARP for it because it knows that it can't be reached locally. It will send the traffic for the remote host on the other subnet to its Default Gateway. So no, you are not supposed to see the MAC addresses of remote hosts in your ARP table.

joeqwerty
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  • But sometimes I can see the gateway of the host network listed in the arp table of the remote computer. Why? – bgmCoder Feb 28 '14 at 00:54
  • But should I understand that WINS *should* enable Windows Network to see the computers in the other subnet? – bgmCoder Feb 28 '14 at 00:56