[caljohn]

Assuming I don't have access to the router, what is the best way of determining which computers/devices are on a WLAN?


Some background:
Unfortunately I'm on Windows XP SP2 (wish I were on Linux!) , so I may be a bit limited in using some of the more high-power networking tools, but I would greatly appreciate advice of how to best keep track of who's using a wireless network I'm on.

For instance, I've used Angry IP Scanner as a simple ping scanning test, but much to my chagrin, it seems that it doesn't always find everyone on the WLAN. I found this out by experimenting with a program called "RogueScanner GUI" from http://www.paglo.com...ce/roguescanner. It uses techniques like ARP scanning I think as a more comprehensive scan.

One of my questions is, sometimes RogueScanner finds Windows computers on the WLAN that Angry IP Scanner misses, and I thought that unless you go through special trouble to disable ping replies, all Windows computers (and most other computers/devices on a network) would respond to a simple ping test. Is this not true?

I've also experimented with Zenmap (an Nmap GUI) from insecure.org. But I can't figure out how to get Zenmap to return Netbios computer name information. And what is the best way to set up Nmap to detect as many hosts as possible on the WLAN? (e.g. can it do ARP scanning?)

So I could use some expert advice--is there a "definitive" way to determine who's on a network (WLAN in my case), or at least what is the most comprehensive/reliable way of doing this? Thanks for any help!

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#1 why?
#2 if you don't have router access...then one would assume that this isn't your network...at which point it's also safe to assume that you're not legally privileged to see the information you're requesting about the network.

[dsenette]

#1 why?
#2 if you don't have router access...then one would assume that this isn't your network...at which point it's also safe to assume that you're not legally privileged to see the information you're requesting about the network.