On Windows, `arp -d` sometimes fails but `netsh` comes to the rescue
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/08
(All below statements were run elevated as Administrator)
I had arp -d fail with any parameter combination on one of my systems always throwing the error The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect..
Luckily I found out that this did clear the ARP cache correctly:
netsh interface ip delete arpcache
I found that via [Wayback/Archive] “The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect.” – Recherche Google:
- [Wayback/Archive] Can’t Delete ARP Cache on Windows 7 x64 – Super User (thanks [Wayback/Archive] Sam Skuce and [Wayback/Archive] mt025):
Q
When I enter the command linearp -d *at an instance of cmd.exe, I getThe ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrectI can delete individual entries fine, e.g.arp -d 192.168.1.1I also have Cygwin and Git Bash installed, so I thought maybe the*was getting expanded like in a Unix shell, but it doesn’t appear so, asecho *from cmd.exe results in a simple*output. I have also tried escaping the asterisk and enclosing it in quotes witharp -d "*"andarp -d ^*. Both result in the same error.I do have two NICs on this machine, an internal and a USB, but I get the same error when I unplug the USB NIC.The account I am running from is an administrator, and I have also tried right-clicking cmd.exe and selecting “Run as Administrator.”A
Use the commandnetsh interface ip delete arpcacheYou can then runarp -ato confirm that the entries have gone. - [Wayback/Archive]
arp -d *The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect– Microsoft Q&A
The command of
arp -d *works fine in my lab. You might try to runnetsh interface ip delete arpcacheand then check whether the entries have gone.
The help and failures:
C:\temp>arp --help ... ARP -s inet_addr eth_addr [if_addr] ARP -d inet_addr [if_addr] ARP -a [inet_addr] [-N if_addr] [-v] ... -d Deletes the host specified by inet_addr. inet_addr may be wildcarded with * to delete all hosts. ... C:\temp>arp -d * The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect. C:\temp>arp -d The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect. C:\temp>arp -d * The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect. C:\temp>arp * -d The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect. C:\bin\bin>netsh interface ip delete arpcache Ok.
–jeroen
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