ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) maps an IP address to a device’s MAC address within a local network.

Elaboration:

• Necessary for communication within Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks.
• Uses ARP tables to store IP-to-MAC mappings.
• Attacks like ARP spoofing can be used to manipulate network traffic.

Example:

If a computer wants to communicate with 192.168.1.1, it uses ARP to find the MAC address associated with that IP.

To check the ARP table on Windows, run:

arp -a