How to get the Hostname or Computer name of a Device?

[paulk29]

Hi Guys,
I have been given a Project to get all the names of the Devices ( PCs, Servers, Routers etc. ) connected to Our Lan Switches. On the switch I can get a list of MAC addresses via the arp table but I dont know how to get the host names of these devices....
By the way this is a very large Network and its not feasible to go chasing cables.
Can anyone suggest a method or some piece of software that might help?
Thanks a million
Paul

Paul Kilcoyne B eng. CCNA

 

[patrckb]

Paul,

A ver useful Windows command I use frequently is the "nbtstat -A [IP address]" command. It will query the IP and if it is a Microsoft OS, it will tell you the machine name and user ID of whoever is logged in. I've found this very helpful.

HTH,
Patrick

Patrick Bartkus, CCNP, CNX, SCM, RHCE Sr. Network Engineer
GA Dept of Labor IT Network Services
If truth were not absolute, how could there be justice?

 

[mbilgrav]

there are several ping scanners etc that resolves netbios names as well.
Be sure to doublecheck both DNS names and netbiosnames
You could check out the solarwinds suite of netttool

HTH
Martin

 

[fortunat]

If its a flat network, I've had great success with Fluke's Optiview Console.

It discovers device names via various methods and will even draw(integrate) with Visio to draw diagrams.

Fluke Networks has a time limited (20 days I think??) version you can download to try and see if it meets your requirements.

'Making things work better; bit by bit.'

 

[thebar]

Paul,
As the lads have said , try using a scanner (e.g SuperScan) and it will give you a list of all the host names of PC's and servers in your network. It probaly wont get the routers or switches as they wont have a network names configured on them. All you have to do is scan every ip addess in your range and it should do the trick.

Rgds
Barry (C&W)
Send me a mail sometime!!
The Wesley massive still lives !!