asked on

Locating computer on network

I am running on a 2003 domain with XP machines. On occasion I will pick up personal laptop. I can find them in My Network Places in a Workgroup. I then have the pleasure of trying to locate them and tell them no personal laptops. The problem I'm having is finding any information on laptops that are in a different workgroup (MSHOME) for example. I can usually ping the computer name and get an IP Address, but only if I can find out the name. Is there any utility I can run to find a computer in a workgroup if a name is not listed?

Thanks,
Mike

Michael Knight

a decent free low level network scanner: http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/manual/
That will give you the name of computers if it can determine the name it will definately show IP.

JAN PAKULA

you can do network sniff of all subnet - filter known mac or ip addresses and you will get definite answer how many alien computers to the network are connected

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Protocol-Analyzers-Sniffers/IP-Sniffer.shtml

Jan ICT TECH MA CCNA

Michael Knight

that should have read: It will determine the name of the machines if it can. It will definately show IP.

rawinnlnx9

You can try nslookup {IPADDRESS} but that won't always work.
You can also try NBTSTAT -A {IPADDRESS}

rawinnlnx9

ping -a {IPADDRESS} might also respond with a hostname.

aintgot1

ASKER

Thanks for the replies. I can't get any results sometimes using ping. NBTSTAT and nslookup won't help unless I have an IP Address, which I don't always get. I not able to run any sniffer software.
I will look into the softpedia link and I hope I'm allowed to run it. Will post back results.

Thanks,
Mike

Lukasz Chmielewski

How are the laptops getting their IP addresses ? From domain DHCP server ?

aintgot1

ASKER

How are the laptops getting their IP addresses ? From domain DHCP server ?
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I'm assuming so. Some laptops I see I can ping by name and get an IP Address from our DHCP. Some laptops I see the name, but cannot ping. The message is cannot find host. If I can get an IP Address from pinging their name, I can get the MAC address and then have the MAC blocked.

Thanks,
Mike

Michael Knight

"I not able to run any sniffer software."

why?

aintgot1

ASKER

Our core IT dept. will not let us run sniffer programs for security reasons, nothing that captures packets. That really hurts because I have bandwidth problems and I need to know where those issues are coming from. I have no interest in capturing e-mail and reading it, but I guess I'm stuck with that.

Thanks,
Mike

FireW0lf

I use "The Dude" - rubbish name, superb program, and it's free

www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

As well as monitoring your network (via various means - Ping, SNMP, etc), it also has the option of network diagramming

You just put in your subnet, and leave it to it. Perioudically any newly connected machines are added to the display

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Michael Knight

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aintgot1

ASKER

just a scanner... no packets will be harmed in the running of this program.
http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/manual
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This is a nice program. I think it will do what I need. I haven't tried it at work yet, maybe tomorrow or Tuesday.

www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

As well as monitoring your network (via various means - Ping, SNMP, etc), it also has the option of network diagramming
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This is a very nice program as well. I'm going to try it at work also. I'll see if it will go through our switches. If it does, I might be able to locate rogue laptops easier.

Thanks again,
Mike