IP Networking

I have 2 identical printers with the same IP on my network. One is only used as a backup for the primary printer and both are never on line at the same time. The goal was to always keep only 1 on and have an use the other printer as an immediate backup if necessary. But when I switch the cable I can't ping the printer until I reboot. I am assuming UNIX is saving the MAC addresses and it no long matches. How do I refresh the UNIX IP Address table without rebooting?

Thanks in advance!!

See 'man arp'.

I've read about the arp command, but that is for changing the table. What I really want to do is regenerate the table without effecting any users who may be on. I've looked at inet and netgen but they say that the script should not be run manually. There must be an easier way to tell the system to go out and look for all IP's and rebuid the table. Any ideas?

The ARP table generates itself whenever you try to talk to an unknown IP address. This happens automatically, at a level so deep that TCP/IP never needs to worry about it. Just delete the bad entry to make room for the new one, and the new entry will just appear next time you try to use the printer.

Deleting an ARP entry is a very safe thing to do. You can't even break connections with it, any missing ones will just be looked up again.

Corona688......

Thank you very much for your help. This process worked great for us.