Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is a
network layer protocol used to obtain an
IP address for 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.
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