On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Matthew W. Ross
<[email protected]> wrote:
> All too often, netbios doesn't resolve. Actually, it's more likely that I
> don't have the
> correct Netbios name of the machine.
Ah, yes. That's a problem. Of course, it's not a technology
problem, it's an administration problem. :)
> So, the foolproof way to get to a machine's address for remote
> support is to contact it by IP...
Of course, if you don't know the right name, is there any guarantee
you know the right IP address? :)
FYI, if you do know the right IP address but are unsure of the name:
The NBTSTAT command can be used to query a machine's NetBIOS name
table, given an IP address. For example:
NBTSTAT -A 192.0.2.42
NBTSTAT switches are case-sensitive; "-A" and "-a" do different things.
NBTSTAT annoyingly needs admin rights to run, even if all you're
doing is a query.
> They have a nice view of all the computers it can see, and allows you to
> search for
> any information. Searching for an asset tag, active program, or logged in
> user is
> all possible... while there doesn't seem to be anything like this for Windows.
Not for free. There is asset management software which can do all
this, but the good stuff tends to be hideously expensive. We don't
use have such at %DAYJOB% for that very reason. I do have a
home-grown MS Access database I track all sorts of stuff in, but it's
kind of kludgey. Looking for something better is on my long-term
to-do, but I got too much other stuff to worry about.
>> (3) Prevent computers from attempting to become the browse master on
>> all but a few reliable nodes (e.g., servers selected for the task).
>
> We used to do this with a linux box and samba, by giving the samba box a
> extremely high OS code (I don't think that's what it's called) which means it
> always won the election.
Right, but with the above registry change, the random computers in
the network won't even *attempt* an election. Plus, momentary
connectivity problems can result in a split, where different groups
get their own master browser, and then another set of elections when
connectivity is resumed.
-- Ben
~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
