Documentation forEngineer's Toolset

Complete Discovery Wizard

The Network Discovery wizard walks you through discovering your network.

  1. Click File > Network Discovery wizard.
  2. To create a new database, click Create a New Discovery Database, and then complete the following steps:
    1. Enter a name and then select the database to be created in the Save as enter field:
      • Sonar Database
      • Access Database
    2. Click Save.
  3. To use an existing database, click Open an Existing Database, select your database, and then click OK.
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Add field, enter your SNMP community strings, and then click Add.

    6. The more community strings you add, the longer Network Sonar may take to discover your network. Use the arrows to arrange the order of the strings with the most frequently used community strings first in the list.

  6. Click Next.
  7. Click Specify a Seed Router and Discovery Network Topology.

    A seed router is any router in your network. A server, switch, or workstation that supports SNMP can also be used. For best results, use a core router.

  8. Enter an IP address or host name in the Host name or IP address field, and then click Add.
  9. Click Discover Network Topology.

    10. Discovering the network topology may take a few minutes. If a small number of subnets are missing from the list, Network Sonar can pick them up during the network discovery. If entire networks are missing, rerun the topology discovery using a seed router in the missing network. To get back to Discover Subnets, from a seed router window, click Previous.

  10. In the Network Topology window, click OK, and then click Next.
  11. Select the subnets to include, and then click Next.

    12. If you plan to discover a portion of the Internet, such as a national or local ISP network, add the networks or subnets manually and set limits on the discovery. If you do not specify the subnets, Network Sonar may attempt to discover the entire Internet.

  12. Click Start Discovery.

    The faster you set the discovery slider, the more traffic is generated. If you are discovering a network across a dial-up line or low bandwidth circuits, increasing the discovery speed will also increase the chances of congestion and dropped packets.

You can stop the Discovery at any time. The next time you start it, Discovery will begin where it stopped.