Determine IP address from Mac Adress

I am on a different subnet than it is though.  will it not try and go through it's default gateway when it sees my ip address is out of it's subnet range?  or can it tell i am on the local net and not bother with it's gateway?

I tried your suggestion but was unable to ping or access the device after assigning it an ip address locally.  However, i am not 100% certain that the device will respond even if i can successfully determine it's IP address.

Is the IP address you assigned to it a valid, unused IP address on the other subnet (the subnet containing the device)?  W/o assigned it an IP address like that it may not be routed correctly...

Cheers

no, it's an unassigned IP on my known subnet.  I haven't a clue what subnet it is on.  Just that it is using a different one than the rest of the network.  I am using 192.168.0.1-255 and it may be using a 10.x.x.x  or 169.x.x.x range of some sorts.

Try contacting it with an IP address on its own subnet (surely you know an IP of another device on its subnet? i hope?)

dozero,
what switch do you have? model....

nope, don't know it's subnet or the other three hubs on that same subnet.  It is an unknown subnet and that's what i am trying to figure out.

Can you plug a laptop or something into one of them and then do it from there?

I am plugged into it, but i don't know what subnet it is running :-)

Oh, hi Jose, didn't notice your post.  They are 3Com superstack II dual speed hubs and one Superstack 3 switch

Oh, well if you are plugged straight into it and try to communicate with it using an IP address on the same subnet as your computer... it *should* work... beyond that, i dunno...

Cheers

So you are saying that if i am physically located on the same network as the device but using a different subnet with a different subnet mask and different default gateway as the device that i should still be able to communicate with it because it can sense it doesn't have to go through a router to reach me because i'm local ?

I think that's how it should work (if by physically located on the same network you might physically plugged into the switch with which you are trying to communicate).

hmmmm, i will give that a try with another computer i have.  I will assign it a different IP subnet and try your suggestion.  That way i can confirm it's a problem with my switch and prove your suggestion works.  Then i can work on fixing my switch problem if it confirms.

thanx.

dozero,
here is the link where you can download software for administration and documentation about 3Com superstack II dual speed hubs, why don´t you download software and documentation?
http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=support&pathtype=support&sku=3C16610-US
Jose

Check the owner's documentation for the ability to pram the device--wiping any configured settings out and going back to factory defaults.  Then check for the factory default IP in the manual.  Reconfigure from scratch.

I would try arp'ing to it.
Or connect a pc + sniffer and watch for its traffic.  With a sniffer you should be able to track the data from the mac adress, then configure your pc to the same subnet as the switch so you can manage it..

1) If you send a ping 255.255.255.255 while beeing physically connected... try to listen with a sniffer who answers!

2) Just hack the IP... htere are thousands of IP-scanners in the world for example http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/ ... just enter the complete private network-range i.e. 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 and 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 ... and you should get answers more than you want :)

Good Luck
Holger

uuu i forgot: just like trobertson said... you should read the arp-table afterwards... after u have pinged it, the arp-table should be filled.

NOTE: you must be DIRECTLY connected to the device, if you want the MAC-adress of that specific device!

Holger

i did a test setup with a win2k box that's also plugged into the switch.  I changed it's ip address from 192.168.0.99 to 10.1.1.1 .   Then i added it's mac address and the ip address 192.168.0.28 (an unassigned ip) to my arp table in my other computer.  It was not able to ping it, destination unreachable.  So i added the mac address of my first computer the computer i changed the ip address to 10.1.1.1 and assigned it 10.1.1.2 .   This time i received a timeout instead of the destination unreachable, but was still unsuccessful at pinging it.  

I placed a sniffer on the network and the only traffic i could see from the computer i changed to 10.1.1.1 was 10.1.1.1:138 to 10.1.1.255:138 UDP and i assume this is because its running win2k.  It never generated any traffic while i was trying to ping it or ping from it.

4) I forgot: switches are NO active network parts - they have no MAC-adress, since they don't route anything ... they are only smart cables and bindings. A bridge is an active layer2 equipement, as it looks at the MAC-adress of a packet to decide which Interface should be used to send forth the packet.
You may say, that a switch does this too... but a switch may per definitionem not change the sending MAC-adress inside the packet - it only uses the information to fill a short living table, where the MAC-adress resides, which port to use..... a switch itself is NOT adressable - if you use a mangeable switch, you have a management port that IS adresssable (as it is a NIC with an IP)

I hope this is all still the truth - but if you guys know more let me know

Holger

... until now, the last word was given by me... so i have nothing to add - but points

I never got to fully test the last configuration example that Holger suggested.  I will give it a go and then resolve this question.

Even if i see, that there is no solution until now - i'm not willing to see my proposals written for nothing...
If they don't fit the solution - well then it's my problem - but if not and we only don't know of, i'd like to get the points for my effort...

regards Holger

My appologies Holger, A for effort and i see no reason your solution shouldn't have worked for me.  

Thx for this opinion and your points .. ;-)
Holger