Network Analysis Script

[NFI]

Hiya,

Ok, here goes...

I want to write a script (either .cmd or .vbs) that will analyse my network in terms of the hardware present on it.

My idea is that I could run a script on a host and it would then, probably by MAC Address, figure out what is connected to what for the entire network.

What I'd really like is for my script to produce a spreadsheet (or .csv file or whatever) that was something along the lines of...

|  MAC Address  |  Parent MAC Address  |  Children MAC Addresses  |

Now, I appreciate that this is most likely impossible and, to be fair, I really haven't got a clue where to start with it - I thought about using ARP, ROUTE, NSLOOKUP and TRACERT in combination in some way, but that's about as far as I've got...

What I'm really trying to achieve here is a script from which I can construct a map of my network, so it's the switches I'm most interested in rather than the hosts (of which there are a few - about 1500 at the last count - you can imagine how many switches that involves!)

If anybody can help me with this, it would be much appreciated, even if it's to say "stop being so cheap - go out and buy a network analyser"

Thanks,

Paul

 

[KiscoKid]

Can I recommend a tool called Angry IP Scanner? YOu can downit here:

http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/

Basically this is an ultra fast network scanner. You can set it to display IP address and corresponding MAC address for everything on your network.

Hope this helps

 

[pansophic]

It is certainly not impossible, but there are numerous applications out there that will do it already, so it probably isn't worth your time "building" something.

Cheops in Linux will do it.
NetViz will as well.
And Visio Enterprise has it built in.

You should be aware that unless you have a completely flat network (no routers in it) then the MAC address will only work for your local subnet. All other subnets will show the MAC address of your router.


pansophic

 

[phannah]

NBTScan is a good command line tool to provide you this type of information. It can produce output that can be further edited in Excel.

 

[NFI]

Thanks chaps

I'll certainly look into all of these...


thanks for your time,

Paul