Need a Workstation Identifier program

[MrBird308]

I am working in a hospital and have SEVERAL hundred computers in the building. I am looking for a workstation on my network that no one has a clue where it whent. I have the unit name and even the IP Adress but that tells me nothing about where the unit is phsically. It shows as being logged into last week but is now in hibernation as i cannot Remote into (or ping) the unit.

I used to use a workstation identifier program that could be pushed to a sleeping computer that would make the computer whistle (through the speakers) and flash a screen saying "Call MrBird @ extension ####" on the screen, until someone would turn off the program, kinda like an Alarm clock.

However i lost the only flashdrive that had that tool on it. Does anyone know of any tool that would work like the one described? Or at least tells any user that walks by to tell someone in I.T.

 

[cdogg]

Do you have a dedicated network engineering group that you can contact? Based on the IP address, they should be able to tell you what switch and port it is connected to narrowing it down to a smaller area or at least one floor. If your wall plates throughout the hospital and in the switch closets are labeled as well, that might even lead to an exact location.

If you have local admin rights on the workstation, next time it's online you can go to Start -> Run, type \\IP Address\c$ and click OK. Put a text or word document in the All Users startup folder with your message. The next time someone logs off/on it will open (of course, you could force a reboot using computer management, but with the risk of pissing someone off!).

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[goombawaho]

cdogg - He doesn't have physical access to the workstation so he can do anything on it.

But the rest of your post is correct about looking at the DHCP server to match IP address with MAC address and then the switches (if they're managed switches). That would give you a port number. With the port number, you should be able to say port X on switch Y goes to Jack XY which is in room zz.

Now, that's assuming you have managed switches, your wiring diagrams are accurate and your wall jacks are labeled properly. That's a LOT to assume for a lot of places I've seen.

Otherwise, it's "look in every room". Could it be a laptop that someone is taking home??

 

[Noway2]

How is the network partitioned? Do you have it organized as one big logical segment or do you have it broken up in to subnets, and possibly domains?

I am asking because I am thinking along the lines of possibly using traceroute (tracert on windows), to see if you can get a route path to the machine that may help narrow things down a bit. MAC address + IP address may help as has been suggested, but if you pass through any routers, the MAC will disappear - but you will see this with the traceroute, along with the MAC of the gateway.

Cdogg's suggestion also brings up another idea, even without physical access, you may be able to use the remote desktop feature to log in to the machine or even use explorer and access \\<ip-address>\c$ to map the C drive and use this to get naming or operator information that might lend a clue.

 

[BadBigBen]

perhaps, the following network application could be of service to you, at least it can't hurt to try (free):

The Dude

http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[MrBird308]

The network team did test the router and switch and could not get the unit to respond. Im thinking the unit is turned off or does not wake up on LAN. I cannot get the thing to WAKE UP at all (tried ping 3 times, didnt work). When people log in to it they are only on for a short time 5-10 min at most. I would try to drop a message into all users but cant remote in at all.

The program i was describing is a trojan that can be pushed to a sleeping computer and the trojan would activate the next time someone logged in. About 5 yrs ago was the last time i downloaded it but for the life of me cannot remember the name or even where i downloaded it from.

 

[JimInKS]

What does "login" mean? Is this an Active Directory login?
How do you know they are only logging in for 5-10 Minutes?

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

tried this?

http://www.spiceworks.com/product/

the other thing to use is dameware tools, you can then push the remote tools and watch whats going on.

another great tool is

http://www.softactivity.com/

remote push of monitoring

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[goombawaho]

What's wrong with a nice walk-around? You get to see people, waste time, get exercise, check out the opposite sex around the building, etc.

It's all positive!!!

 

[goombawaho]

What's wrong with a nice walk-around? You get to see people, waste time, get exercise, check out the opposite sex around the building, etc.

It's all positive!!!

 

[cdogg]

Those are good points goomba. It certainly doesn't hurt to get up and check out the scenery!

The only problem though is how do you know what you're looking for? Even if you had the serial number, you'd have to check each one by hand, right? It would be nice if the hospital had some kind of inventory management software installed such as SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager). You'd then be able to use such a tool to track down the computer name and user profiles that are logging onto the system.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[goombawaho]

Well, if you don't have that type of system/database and other methods fail, looks like you'll be stalking around the building until you can locate it.

 

[FredWagner]

An idea that could eventually help - when I arrived in my current organization, the PCs (several thousand of them) were all named with their mainframe ID's - one or two letters and two or three numbers, not associated with anything in particular. I suggested, and got implemented with help, a plan to name PCs by an ID of the building (three letters), the floor they're on (two digits), the dept/bureau they belong to (two letters), and a short sequence number (two or three numbers). It's immensely helpful in knowing where a PC is! It also helps to use a P-Touch label on the machine giving the name, and if a mainframe number is assigned, that too. with 64 locations on the WAN, and several in high rise buildings, it makes life a lot easier to have this system. It also makes getting listings by location easier - we use LANDesk for management.

Fred Wagner

 

[goombawaho]

Fred - that's WAY TOO ORGANIZED. What kind of people do you think run most IT organizations where there is shoddy cabling, no labels, computers named for the owner's dog, etc.

^^^^^That is completely in jest of course. I've seen companies that run their networks WORSE and less organized than people with a home office.

 

[BadBigBen]

Goom,

I can concur with you there...

seen the Dog named scheme before too... this office's Boss had named the DC Rex, and two other computers Bello and Senta, after his German-Shepherds... but that is human nature for you...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[cdogg]

Fred,
That must have been a pain. Makes you wonder what's going through people's heads sometimes. Mainframe ID's, really? lol

We use a similar naming scheme. XXYYZZnnn where XX = building, YY = department, ZZ = device type (LP for laptop, WS for workstation, etc.), and nnn = any 3 numbers starting with 001 on up.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[goombawaho]

I was only joking about the dogs (never really seen it), but hey - I was spot on if only accidentally.

If you have less than seven computers, I would start like this: sneezy, flabby, drippy, and the other dwarfs. I guess this thread is done.

 

[xwb]

1) Could you switch on "Wake on LAN" on all the machines? If the machine hibernates, it will wake up when you try accessing it over the network.
2) Once you've found out where the machines are, could you do something like
net config server /srvcomment:"Priestley Bldg, East Wing, Floor 20, Ward 17"
(or ask the owners of the machines to put this information down on the description).

You can have a naming convention but you are restricted to 11 characters. It is far easier to put a description in full rather than trying to encode where something is and then finding that you haven't catered for something like a lower basement or a mezzanine floor.

If the machines move, then ask them to change the description of where they are.

 

[goombawaho]

Didn't the OP already try that? (Wake-on-LAN)

"now in hibernation as i cannot Remote into (or ping) the unit.

 

[xwb]

Wake on LAN should have woken it up from hibernation. It does that on all the machines where I have it switched on.

Apart from that, WOL is one of those really annoying features when you are trying to shutdown the machine. Switch it off and if you do not power off at the mains within the server ICMP period (no idea what they've set this to in my system), server activity switches it back on.