On Tuesday 14 March 2006 11:08 am, Timothy A. Holmes wrote: > Hans -- Thank you, I realize that I can make it blink with network > traffic, the problem is that basically all the ports on the switches > have traffic running constantly on them, so I need to find a way to make > it distinctive enough so it can be picked out from the rest of the > noise. > > I will try to run down the tools that you mentioned and see if any of > them provide a solution -- thank you > > TIM > > > Timothy A. Holmes > IT Manager / Network Admin / Web Master / Computer Teacher > > Medina Christian Academy > A Higher Standard... > > Jeremiah 33:3 > Jeremiah 29:11 > Esther 4:14 > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Hans-Werner Hilse [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 12:01 PM > > To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org > > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Port Tracer Program Needed > > > > Hi, > > > > On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:03:24 -0500 "Timothy A. Holmes" > > > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I am getting ready to start a project here in the building to map > > the > > > > physical infrastructure of our network (its been assembled kinda > > willy > > > > nilly over the last 8 years or so). I am looking for a program to > > run > > > > on my laptop that I can plug into a wall plate and it will cause the > > > port activity lights on the switch to blink distinctly so that I can > > > begin tracing plugs to ports. Due to budgetary constraints, open > > > source / freeware is very very preferable. > > > > Not sure about "distinctly" (that will certainly depend on the > > switch's > > > electronic and programmatic design), but - tada - you can usually > > cause > > > the traffic light on the switch to blink with network traffic ;-) > > > > So broadcasting some UDP packages out into the wild should be > > sufficient. Use e.g. netcat. OTOH, you might want to play with ethtool > > and switch connection rates for short intervals. Usually switches have > > a light indicator for the speed, too, so that should be easier to > > distinct on a busy switch. Toggle this in a shell loop with a few > > "sleep"s inserted... > > > > -hwh > > --
Netwox (+ optionally netwag) has some neat tools. One that I have found handy is the audible ping. Whenever it receives a successful ping response it beeps your pc speaker. It may or may not have any benefit for you in this secenario but it can be useful at times when you are muddling around and can't see your screen, you can just listen for the "beep, beep, beep" then disconnect the proper cable and it goes silent. Or in the reverse, plug in the right cable and you start to hear the "beep, beep, beep". Netwox has a ton of other neat tools, servers and clients. If your switches are manageable you can probably look up your switches cam table (MAC address to eth port mapping) then look at your clients ARP cache after pinging your broadcast address on each network. Good luck on your network mapping. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
