How does ENT NetCenter get a list of the machines on the network

Last updated: Thursday, March 16, 2006

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This article discusses how ENT NetCenter and ENT Network Monitor "discover" the machines on a network when running a Network Scan

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The exact method used to enumerate the machines on the network will depend how you have the network configured/recorded in your ENT Inventory. There are three possible ways that you could record the network, each of which will result in a different enumeration method. Firstly, you can define the network as a subnet (i.e. a range of IP addresses). Secondly, you can define the network as a "Domain" and then specify the "Domain Name" for the network in Windows NT 4.0 format (e.g. MICROFORGE). Finally, you can define the network as a "Domain" and then specify the "Domain Name" for the network using the Windows 2000 format (e.g. microforge.local).

The three different scenarios above result in three different ways of finding the machines on the network...

A subnet will cause ENT NetCenter to issue a series of ICMP pings to find the machines on the network.
A domain with a Windows NT 4.0 formatted domain name will cause ENT NetCenter to get a list of the machines on the network using the network browser service (kind of like looking through my networks in Windows Explorer).
A domain where you specify a FQDN for the "Domain Name" will cause ENT NetCenter to fetch a list of the machines on the domain directly from the AD controller for the domain using ADSI... this is probably the quickest and most efficient way to get a list of the machines on the network but it will obvsiously only work if you have an active directory.