Device Discovery Problem

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I need to populate a list/gridview with device IP & MAC information from "black boxes" that we install on client networks. Sometimes there can be over 100 of these boxes. So I want to populate the list by discovery versus manual entry even if they give us the static IPs.

After UDP discovery, all communication takes place via TCP. Everything works fine with the program, except the UDP discovery. I haven't messed with UDP before, so I may just be missing something simple.

Through trial, error, and reading a lot of posts/examples I've come to these conclusions or questions:

Is there no way to just blast the port without an IP? Using the udpclient, it seems I must first connect to a valid or alive remote host. When I put in a range of IPs to send to, if the initial node is not alive, I'll get nothing back from any of the remote IPs. Even when there are valid devices replying back in that range as I send. Only if I start with a node that is alive, I'll get back the response in udpclient.Receive.

Is there another way of doing this? Am I doing something wrong and need to post some code? I've looked at multicasting and broadcast groups, but think the client' IT Admin may be hesitant. Any help is much appreciated. Sorry for the long post. Just trying to explain where I want to go with it.

Jason

Posted 20-Jan-10 11:51am

CaptMorgan72

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Rod Kemp · Answer 1 · 2010-01-23T15:26:00

So long as it is not blocked on the network you could use UDP broadcast, where by the "black boxes" listen for the broadcast and send back their IP/MAC information to the sender, it will not be instant so you may have to wait a few seconds.

This[^] article has some information on UDP broadcast.