I noticed that my XP pops up a baloon about that it found my UPNP-enabled router whenever I reconnect network.
In my windows command line, I can enter Net View
supposedly to see computers in the workgroup (although currently I cannot see the computer next door when I should but this is unrelated;).)
Windows Media Player in Vista introduced some feature that can detect shared media over the network.
If I enter windows' network, it makes something like a samba discovery.
I guess in Linux there are other similar protocols in use that work over LAN. And in Mac, too.
- What are these protocols? I mean, more accurately than, say, 'based on UDP'.
- What other protocols are common? (eg. built-in in some used version of Windows, MacOSX, Top10 Linux distro., or topping in some category in alternativeto and worth to mention.)
- Is there a tool for them to list available computers/peers on LAN - preferably over the command line?
(Is there a tool that can list nodes by multiple protocols?)