Documentation forSolarWinds

IP Network Browser tool

The IP Network Browser tool in ETS for the Desktop is an interactive network discovery tool. IP Network Browser can scan a subnet and show the details about the devices on the subnet. Each IP address is sent a ping. For each responding address, IP Network Browser attempts to gather more information. It does this using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). An SNMP agent must be active on the remote devices in order for IP Network Browser to gather details about the device.

The IP Network Browser tool can discover any device with an IP address. If the device has an SNMP agent and the correct SNMP community string is included in the IP Network Browser Settings, IP Network Browser discovers a great deal about the device.

The first time you run IP Network Browser, a configuration wizard guides you through setting up the tool. Before completing the wizard, confirm that you have the read or read and write community string and that an access list on your router is not blocking SNMP access.

Open the IP Network Browser tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the IP Network Browser tool and click Launch.

  • You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

  • To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

    1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

    2. Right-click IP Network Browser, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Scan a subnet

When you scan a subnet, you are not required to enter the exact network address. IP Network Browser calculates the correct subnet address based on the Subnet Mask. For example, if you enter 10.0.23.100 as the Subnet Address and 255.255.255.192 as the Subnet Mask, IP Network Browser calculates the correct subnet: 10.0.23.64/255.255.255.192. For this example, IP Network Browser scans from 10.0.23.65 to 10.0.23.126.

  1. Enter an IP address in the Subnet Address field.

  2. Enter the subnet mask in the Subnet Mask field.

  3. Click Scan Subnet.

Scan a single device

  1. Enter a host name or IP address in the Host name or IP address field.

  2. Click Scan Device.

Scan an IP address range

When scanning a range of IP addresses, you might scan a network or broadcast address. When you scan a broadcast address, any device (or all devices) on the subnet might respond. The discovery information can be a mix from many different devices.

  1. Enter the beginning IP address in the Beginning IP address field.

  2. Enter the final IP address of the range in the Ending IP address field.

  3. Click Scan Address Range.

Modify IP Network Browser settings

Enable IP Network Browser to locate as many devices as possible within your network.

  1. Click File > IP Network Browser Settings.

  2. To modify the community strings tried when contacting devices, click the Community Strings tab.

    • To add a community string, enter the community string you want to add in the New Community String field, and then click Add.

    • To remove a community string, click the community string, and then click Delete.

    • To change the order in which community strings are attempted, select the community string then click the up or down arrow.

  3. To modify the number of pings sent during the discovery mode or change the delay between pings, click the Discovery tab. ICMP pings are used to initially discover a responding node. If you are connecting over dialup or another slow connection, the wait and delay can be increased for better discovery and to limit traffic generated by the tool.

    The number of pings per node should always be set to 2 or more, especially when scanning networks using Cisco routers. If the target IP address is not in the ARP cache of the Cisco router, the router discards the ICMP query (ping) while it requests the MAC address of the target IP. The first ping will never reach the subnet of the target IP address. In this situation, the second ping is the one the target IP address responds to.

  4. To modify the wait period before timing out change the ping time to live for a packet, click the ICMP tab.

    • The ping timeout is the number of milliseconds to wait for a reply before assuming that the target IP address is not responding.

    • The packet time-to-live is the number of hops allowed on the way to the specified IP address. With a setting of 32, your ping test could pass through up to 32 different routers on its way to the remote IP address before being thrown away by the network. Normally you would set this to 32 hops.

  5. To modify the community strings tried when contacting devices, click the SNMP tab.

    • The packet timeout designates the number of milliseconds to wait for an SNMP reply before assuming the packet was lost and retrying. You can set this to around 600 milliseconds. The internal SNMP logic of the tool automatically adjusts when it notices dropped packets.

    • Query attempts defines how many times to retry an SNMP query before giving up. Set this to at least 2 to ensure one retry.

Save discovery in HTML

IP Network Browser can save the current discovered information as an HTML page that can be published to your web server. You must first discover node details and expand the corresponding tree items to include details in the HTML version of the discovery. For example, if you have discovered a Windows server and would like the user accounts included in the saved file, you must first expand the accounts tree so the account details are also discovered.

  1. Click File > Publish to Web.

  2. Select the nodes to include, and then click Next.

  3. Select the discovery groups you want included in the report, and then click Next.

    Discovery groups include accounts, routes, shares, and other information discovered through SNMP. Your discovery results may not include all the groups. Results depend on the discovered device enter and what it supports.

  4. Specify whether or not to include the SNMP community strings, and then click Publish.

Print discovery or export it as a text file

You can print the discovered results or export the results to a text file. You must first discover node details and expand the corresponding tree items to include details in the text version of the discovery. For example, if you have discovered a Windows Server and would like the user accounts included in the text file, you must first expand the accounts tree so the account details are discovered.

  1. Click one of the following:

    • File > Print.

    • File > Export wizard.

  2. Select the nodes to be included, and then click Next.

  3. Select the discovery groups you would like included in the report, and then click Next.

    Discovery groups include accounts, routes, shares, and other information discovered through SNMP. Your discovery results may not include all the groups. Results depend on the discovered device enter and what it supports.

  4. Specify to include the SNMP community strings if required, and then click Print or Export.

IP Network Browser command line operation

It is possible to launch the IP Network Browser directly from the command line. You must add the path to IP Network Browser in the PATH system variable or specify the full path when running the program from the command line.

Syntax

IP-Network-Browser HostIP [subnet/mask | startip-endip]

Hostip

IP address of a single machine

subnet/mask

Subnet address and mask separated by a "/"

startip-endip

An IP address range separated by a "-"

Examples

  • Scan or discover a single device:

    IP-Network-Browser 10.23.1.1

  • Scan or discover an entire subnet:

    IP-Network-Browser 10.23.1.1/255.255.255.0

  • Scan or discover a range of IP addresses:

    IP-Network-Browser 10.23.1.1-10.23.50.255

Customize the Tools menu

You can add new tools to the Tools menu by editing the Tools.Menu file. This file and other customizable files are located in the IP-Network-Browser directory in the SolarWinds Toolset installation directory.

The Tools.Menu file is a text file and can be edited in Notepad. The default Tools.Menu file is listed below.

## Tools Menu for IP Network Browser#### Macros that can be used with any command are:## ${IP} IP address of the node# ${Target} Node Name# ${SysObjectID} Unique System OID for the node# ${Community} SNMP community string for the node##&Telnet ... : telnet.exe ${IP}Trace&Route ... : traceroute.exe ${IP}

  • To change the Telnet command, replace the current tool with the following entry:

    &Telnet ... : C:\Program Files\MyFavoriteTools\mytelnet.exe ${IP}

  • To add a command called SSH:

    &ssh ... : ssh.exe ${IP} ${Community}

  • To add menu-dividing lines enter a single hyphen (-) on a line alone.

Customize the MIBs menu

You can add new MIB references to the MIBs menu by editing the .MibsMenu files. These files and other customizable files are located in the IP-Network-Browser directory in the SolarWinds Toolset installation directory.

The *.MibsMenu files are text files that can be edited in any text editor. The file names of the MibsMenu files are simply the vendor or machine specific sysObjectID followed by .MibsMenu. The sysObjectID can be discovered for a specific device by using IP Network Browser to discover it, and then expanding the System MIB section of the tree. You can also use SolarWinds MIB Browser to find or discover new MIB references.

# MIBs Menu for IP Network Browser## Generic SNMP Devices## Syntax for each line is ...## Menu item : MIB table or tree# &MAC Addresses of Interfaces ... : ifPhysAddress&Running Software ... : hrSWRunTable Installed &Software ... : hrSWInstalledTable-&IP Statistics ... : ipInReceives & Next 16&ICMP Statistics ... : ICMP&SNMP Statistics ... : SNMP&TCP Statistics ... : tcpRtoAlgorithm & Next 11 & tcpInErrs & tcpOutRsts&UDP Statistics ... : udpInDatagrams & Next 3-RMON &Ethernet Statistics ... : etherStatsTableRMON &Token Ring Statistics ... : tokenRingMLStatsTable-&Frame Relay Statistics ... : frCircuitTable&BGP Peer Table ... : bgpPeerTable

Walk a network from one subnet to another

When you right-click a selected subnet, you can zoom to the next subnet and scan it. IP Network Browser opens a new window and begins scanning the subnet in the new window.

IP Network Browser FAQs

How do I create a Community String?

For Cisco routers there is a brief overview on the Cisco @Web page (www.cisco.com). If you have a different router, please refer to that manufacturer's home page for specific instructions on how to configure and change Community Strings.

Is IP Network Browser specific to Cisco devices only, or can it be used to discover details about any device?

The IP Network Browser is not specific to Cisco devices. It can discover any device with an IP address. If the device has an SNMP agent and the correct SNMP community string is included in the IP Network Browser Settings, IP Network Browser discovers a great deal more about the device.

IP Network Browser inherently understands hundreds of types of devices and will discover different details about each. For example: User Accounts, Shares, and Running Services are discovered about Windows workstations and servers. For Cisco routers, the tool discovers IOS levels, the cards in each slot, flash memory details, interface details, frame relay DLCIs and their statuses, among other information.

When expanding the results I get a message saying: "ActiveX component can't create object"

This occurs if a component of your SolarWinds tools has been deleted or moved. This is easily resolved by re-installing ETS for the Desktop. Your existing license will still work and you will not need to re-register.

I cannot seem to download a Cisco configuration file. What am I doing wrong?

  • Are you using the read and write community string?

    Click Router > Verify Community String and ensure you have the read and write community string.

  • Ensure an access control list (ACL) on the router is not blocking SNMP queries.

Also see Troubleshoot the Config Viewer.