Network monitor/identifier?

[David]

I was wondering if anyone has a good program or know of a good program that identify objects on your network and displays information about that device such as mac address and such.

I had a program called Network Magic and it was a decent program but it stopped working yesterday and I had to uninstall it after the good ol try of trying fix it and re-install it.

I know my router gives me a list of mac address being used but it does not say or identify the mac address as being used by the tivo or blu-ray disc player and such.

What do you use to identify what is on your network?

[Nelsona]

For this chapter I'm not using anything because I love simple things. In Win XP I launch CMD.

After that I'm typing at command prompt ipconfig /all. Also might help typing ipconfig help to gain other options.

[Hermskii]

Angry IP does good and I use something else at work too but can't find it here right now. Real simple name too like NetScan or something like that.

[Dr.Flay]

*rummage...rummage* What has the Doc got in his bag-o-tricks ?

These 2 serve me well
http://www.mitec.cz/netscan.html
http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/
This one I have yet to try, but is highly rated.
http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free ... rscan.aspx
and I use many of the tools from this site
http://www.nirsoft.net/network_tools.html

[David]

Here is a generic screenshot of network magic.

networkmagic3.JPG

As you see you have a list of icons being shown on the left side and when you click on one of them, their information such as mac address is displayed in the window pane on the right side.

It was useful information. It helped me identify items on my network so when I went and set up my wireless mac filter on my router, I knew what devices were mine and I could block the rest.

I have the following items on my wireless network: 3 blu-ray players, tivo, 3 laptops, and printer.

I then have 2 computers and a printer hard wired to my network.

So it was nice to have network magic to help me keep track of the mac addresses.

[Dr.Flay]

That looks groovy, though I tend to favour stuff with less graphics, I will have to have a play with it.

[Nelsona]

Yaaay, so you speak about programs showing Net Map in your local Network. Yes, this is not bad for me as well. I have to toy a bit with them.

THANKS, DOC !

[Hermskii]

Pretty cool. I like the graphics. Makes it easier to understand.

[Kelly]

Just access your router directly. MACs can be spoofed but in order to handshake at the router they must provide some sort of identifier. I check mine occasionally as the neighbors bang on my connection every once in a while to hack it. I just add their MACs to the exclusion list, though I'm giving thoughts to creating a sub account and redirecting them to something nasty when they 'break into' it.

[Dr.Flay]

I like yer thinking Kelly

I just noticed "Network Inventory Advisor" linked at the top of the Nirsoft page.
http://www.network-inventory-advisor.co ... ntory.html
Looks worth investigating, as it is free for home use.

BTW. the full Nirsoft collection is available with a useful front-end.

http://launcher.nirsoft.net
The front-end also supports other tool collections, such as Piriform, Mitec.cz and the "must-have" Sysinternals suite.

VERY useful on a USB stick

Just noticed this page http://www.nirsoft.net/countryip/
Could be useful for server admins.