Microsoft KB Archive/164609

= HP JetAdmin 2.33 may cause ARP Storm on Network =

Article ID: 164609

Article Last Modified on 8/9/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 95

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This article was previously published under Q164609



IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry



SUMMARY
When you diagnose network traffic using a network analyzer, a large series of address resolution protocols (ARPs) in sequential order may be detected. This problem can cause network access and traffic to and from all hosts to become temporarily disrupted. One of the possible causes of this behavior is the result of Hewlett Packard's JetAdmin JetDirect discovery tool, which is silently installed when a Hewlett Packard published driver is installed in Windows from a disk. One of Hewlett Packard's JetAdmin 2.33 methods to discover all JetDirect devices (printers) running TCP/IP requires that a ping be sent to every address in the subnet. Although this may provide a very thorough list of devices, it can also generate a huge amount of network traffic. Take, for example, a Class A network address. If JetAdmin were to run, approximately 7 million packets, in succession, will be transmitted upon startup of this utility.



WORKAROUND
There are two possible resolutions to this issue:  Download JetAdmin version 2.40 from Hewlett Packard's Web site. Hewlett Packard's JetAdmin version 2.40 also provides discovery of printers through broadcasts, as well as the ping method described above. Additionally, the ping method has been modified in version 2.40 so that it will, by default, not send pings to more than 2000 addresses without modifying the registry.

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 WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Hewlett Packard's JetAdmin Tool version 2.33 is designed to work in the manner described. On the majority of networks where Class C subnets are used, this behavior will not be a problem because of the small number of broadcasts generated. However, if you have a subnetted class B or class A network, Microsoft recommends that you contact Hewlett Packard for further support. To disable this feature, a change in the Registry must be made. To make this change, perform the following steps:  

 Start the Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe for Windows NT and Regedit.exe for Windows 95). Change the following key located under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hewlett-Packard\HPJetAdmin\TCPIP

Change the Value for NoSubnetSearch to 1. In addition, if you run the JetAdmin application, the following option can be selected and disabled or enabled:

Options\Preferences\TCPIP Discovery\Broadcast

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The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.

NOTE: JetDirect is no longer supported by HP. SDI (Simple Device Installation) is now used to install network printers. For more information on this, see:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpj06765

Additional query words: crash hang storm

Keywords: kb3rdparty kbinterop kbnetwork kbusage KB164609

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