Expert: Ralph Becker - 9/21/2006

Question
Do both types of switches have ARP table?
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Followup To

Question -
Can you tell me what is the difference between a managed and an unmanaged switch?

Answer -
Hi Dimitris and thenks for your question.

The difference is that managed switches (and other networked devices) can be access remotely using a protocol callen SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol.  With SNMP, you can run software that can constantly access the state of your managed network devices and even configure them remotely.  This capability is very handy when you have a large network of devices - everything can be set up and monitored from one central workstation.

Here is an article with more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol

Hope this helps!

Ralph

Answer
Hi again,

Both managed and unmanaged switches work the exact same way, except the managed switch can be monitored and configured through SNMP.  So, yes, all switches maintain an ARP table to keep track of which devices are on which interfaces so it can know where to send packets.

Hope this helps.

Ralph