HP JetAdmin 2.33 may cause ARP Storm on Network

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.

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.
  -or-
• 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:
  1. 
     
     
  2. Start the Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe for Windows NT and Regedit.exe for Windows 95).
  3. Change the following key located under:
     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hewlett-Packard\HPJetAdmin\TCPIP
     Change the Value for NoSubnetSearch to 1.
  4. In addition, if you run the JetAdmin application, the following option can be selected and disabled or enabled:
     Options\Preferences\TCPIP Discovery\Broadcast

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: