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View Full Version : How to find which PC in the LAN broadcosting


gurujupitor
Sep 6, 2008, 12:56 AM
I need to find the broadcosting machine in lan

Scleros
Sep 6, 2008, 03:04 PM
Broadcosting?

All machines broadcast at some point. Without the specifics of the problem you are trying to solve, a general method for insight into your network would be to install a protocol analyzer such as Wireshark (http://www.wireshark.org) on any machine and capture packets during the time of interest (filtering for broadcasts). Depending on your network topology, you may need to configure a switch port for debugging/mirroring and connect the protocol analyzing machine to that port to be able to see and capture the traffic you are interested in.

chuckhole
Sep 6, 2008, 10:00 PM
Broadcosting?

All machines broadcast at some point. Without the specifics of the problem you are trying to solve, a general method for insight into your network would be to install a protocol analyzer such as Wireshark (http://www.wireshark.org) on any machine and capture packets during the time period of interest (filtering for broadcasts). Depending on your network topology, you may need to configure a switch port for debugging/mirroring and connect the protocol analyzing machine to that port to be able to see and capture the traffic you are interested in.

Absolutely 1000%. Wireshark is free and is an excellent tool. Gurujupitor, if you have a few switches in your network, keep in mind that the whole purpose of the switch is to limit each port to its own collision domain instead of like a hub where the entire device is a collision domain. This means that each port is isolated from the other ports in a switch.

This is what Scleros is talking about. You will need to set up ports in each switch as a monitoring port so that you can see into more of your network with your protocol analyzer. This can come in handy if you want to narrow your search. You can plug into a switch monitoring port and look at only the devices on that switch.

SolarWinds (http://www.solarwinds.com) also offers a Network Analyzer that is free and will collect up to two hours worth of data and actually performs a basic analysis for you.