Any software that draws my network layout?

Question

I'm looking for some tool on windows/linux which draws the layout of the network I'm in. Btw, don't think I'm just a user in this network. I don't have any admin controls.

Answer 1

The Dude from Mikrotik is fairly good.

The Dude network monitor is a new application by MikroTik which can dramatically improve the way you manage your network environment. It will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems.

• The Dude is free of charge!
• Auto network discovery and layout
• Discovers any type or brand of device
• Device, Link monitoring, and notifications
• Includes SVG icons for devices, and supports custom icons and backgrounds
• Easy installation and usage
• Allows you to draw your own maps and add custom devices
• Supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it
• Individual Link usage monitoring and graphs
• Direct access to remote control tools for device management
• Supports remote Dude server and local client
• Runs in Linux Wine environment, MacOS Darwine, and Windows
• Best price/value ratio compared to other products (free of charge)

Answer 2

Vista/Windows 7;

1. Network & Sharing centre
2. View full map

Answer 3

In Linux and Unix there exists LanMap2.

LanMap2 is a passive network monitoring/analysis framework; no SNMP required.

It promiscuously listens to all passing data and sifts out potentially interesting factoids (addresses, names, fingerprints, unusual situations, etc.) into an sqlite database.

Scripts are provided to query the database and generate image graphs of network entities, overall connectivity, traffic and notable applications, operating systems and roles that systems play.

It is meant to be an extensible framework; anyone who spends time looking at network traffic and knows a little SQL should be able to contribute analysis-type 'mappings' (see data/*.sql)

Lanmap2's components are decoupled from each other and are fairly straight-forward and flexible; you can report things to the database without having to use them and you can work on analysis-type tasks or scripts while network capture is running.

The current graphing scripts use php to query the database and generate input to graphviz; these can be modified fairly easily.

Installation

Everything is pretty much manual at this point, oh well.

Dependencies: sqlite3 and libsqlite3 (sqlite2 not acceptable!) libpcap gcc php (to interface with db and generate graphviz input; plan on replacing with lua) graphviz (for graph generating)

Ubuntu Linux: Debian Linux: sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev libsqlite3-dev gcc graphviz php5-cli php5-sqlite sqlite3

1. Run make

   make

   This will build and populate the database file 'db/db' And the parse/capture program 'src/cap'

Use

1. Start capturing

   cd db && sudo ../src/cap && cd -

   The application has to run as root, which is a potential security hazard.

   This currently produces prodigious amounts of output; sue me.

2. Generate a graph after letting the capture run for a while.

   cd graph && ./graph.sh && cd -

   This will generate a graph at graph/net.png

   This runs a bunch of php scripts.

3. View the graph via the web/ crap

   I suggest you map/symlink apache to the web/ directory if you are capable

Answer 4

I just saw Belarc Advisor, had it recomended @ Major Geeks, and part of what it shows is all of the network devices on the local network, I was very surprised to see this in the output. It does not draw a pretty picture or anything, but does give you lots of information.

From there you could use Visio, or some other program like it to document the network in whatever type of drawing you prefer.