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How to retrieve client machine name from javascript?

I have an ASP.NET application that is located on the server but is accessed from client machines. I need the application to retrieve computer name of the client computer that accesses the application. How can I do that using javascript?

P.S. I've already tried Environment.MachineName and Request.ServerVariables{"HOSTNAME"]. All these will only retrieve either IP Address or Server machine name. I need a client machine name

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

nisarkhan

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YZlat

ASKER

that's why I need javascript - because I need to retrieve the name of the client machine, the Internet explorer on which opens a web page.

In other words, from a web page opened on computer1 I need to get the name of the computer1. I cannot do that with server-side code, but that's done with client-side code. JavaScript is client-side language

raterus

I believe the only way to truly do this is on the server, first you get the IP, and do a DNS lookup to get the computer name. This will only work in an intranet where you have a local DNS server with all the computer names.

YZlat

ASKER

thanks raterus. and how do I do that? can you post some code?

codeclay

Here is vbscript solution . http://www.codeproject.com/vbscript/userinfo.asp

raterus

I don't have any code to do this off the top of my head, I could google it probably just as easily as you could. ".net DNS lookup"

YZlat

ASKER

I wrote this function to retrieve computer name, but I still need to get at least the IP Address of the client machine in order to pass it to my function. ANd Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"] gives me the IP of the localhost and not client computer

public string ComputerName(string ipaddr)
            {
                  System.Net.IPHostEntry objX;
                  string strHostName="";

                  try
                  {
                        //get the host dns entry
                        objX = System.Net.Dns.GetHostByAddress(ipaddr);

                        //get the hostname property
                        strHostName = objX.HostName;
                  }
                  catch (Exception ex)
                  {

                        //something went wrong (possibly no entry)

                  }//end try
                  return strHostName;
            }

raterus

Try this to get the IP address

string ipaddress;
if (Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"] != "")
{
ipaddress = Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];
}
else
{
ipaddress = Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"];
}

YZlat

ASKER

raterus, I get ipaddress=null

raterus

You've got something weird going on in the configuration of your server. REMOTE_ADDR should work, period, and not be the server's ip.

codeclay

Wait a minute... when did it go server side ? I thought you wanted to do it client side...???

YZlat

ASKER

It's really not important if it's done on client side or server-side, as long as I retrieve the name of the client machine, from which the web page is opened

raterus

Keeping it simple, I think nisarkhan's first comment answered the question. We were getting into server side scripting which wasn't really the original question.

YZlat

ASKER

I guess you are right