The free Open Source software PrimeDesktop combines planning with mapping and even administration. When you start the program for the first time you can start creating a new network right away. You see a list of devices in the Unit Area on the left. You can drag and drop those devices on the planning board. Devices are divided into four groups:

• Desktop devices – Desktop and mobile end user devices.
• Server Devices – Proxy Server, Firewall Server, Printer, Database and Mails servers among others.
• External Devices – Scanners, printers, fax machines and external hard drives among others
• Network devices – Hubs, switches, routers, modems among others.

You can configure each device with a right-click and the selection of Open Device from the context menu. Here it is for instance possible to change the hardware or operating system, software and network settings like the device’s IP, MAC address or default gateway.

Once you have placed your devices on the screen, you can start connecting them with each other.

Here is a feature overview:

• Visualization – A visual representation of all the devices in the network. All devices responsive to user interaction, moveable and connectable to other devices.
• Different Connection Types – Decide how devices connect to each other depending on the available ports. Change ports, manipulate hardware or add/remove hardware to change types of connections possible to and from devices in the network.
• Drag’n'Drop Device Selection – Drag and drop devices into the network from the list of standard devices.
• Networks Overview -Keep track of your open networks with tabs.
• Hardware Overview – Have total control over what hardware each device contains. Install and remove hardware components, like CPU, Motherboard and Ram, to match the machines specific purpose. Configure each hardware component with detailed settings.
• Software Overview – Setup the software on computers. Install and remove programs and operating systems, including softwave specific settings like filesystem support and security settings.
• Network Rules – Control your network with Network Rules. Set what is and is not allowed in your network, with the option to exempt specific devices from the rules.
• Custom Device Icons – Customize the icons for the devices in your network.
• Export Network to a file, so you can share with others, or export the network as an image for easy presentation
• Create rooms in your network to separate and distinguish between network separation.
• Export all aspects of your system, including your standard devices list with icons and custom operating systems. Import others customization and share your work with others.

PrimeDesktop is a Java application which means that you need to have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your computer to run the networking planning and mapping software. You can download the latest version of the program from the application’s home over at Sourceforge.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2011/09/24/network-planning-mapping-software-primedesktop/feed/ 9 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/map-your-network-with-zenmap/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/map-your-network-with-zenmap/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:47:47 +0000 Jack Wallen http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15190 Nmap is one of the most useful network discovery tools you will ever use. Nmap allows you to explore networks of any size to determine the following information:

• Port details
• Host details
• State
• Service
• Devices
• Addresses
• and much, much more

Nmap is one of those applications you will need to open anytime you see issues on your network, need to get information about hosts, track down an IP address, etc. Nmap is flexible, powerful, deployed all over the world (it is in the top 10 programs on Freshmeat), easy to use, well documented, cross platform (Linux, OS X, and Windows ) and (best of all) FREE!

But Nmap is a commmand-line only tool. Most users don’t want to monkey with the command line. Fortunately there are plenty of front-end tools for command line equivalents. For Nmap you can use the user-friend Zenmap. And how can you get up to speed quickly with Zenmap? Easy…you read this tutorial on how to run a scan on your entire LAN and then read the results.

Getting and installing

To install Zenmap you will have to install Nmap along with it. You can do this one of two ways: with Synaptic (or another GUI front end for your installation tool), or from the command line. To install via your Add/Remove Software tool follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software utility.
2. Search for Nmap.
3. Mark Nmap for installation.
4. Search for Zenmap.
5. Mark Zenmap for installation.
6. Click Apply to install.

Once installed you will see the entry for Zenmap in your Internet (or Network) sub-menu of your Applications or Main menu. You will want to run Zenmap as the root user because, most likely, your standard user will not have access to the networking devices.

Running Zenmap

Figure 1

When you fire up Zenmap you will see the main window (see Figure 1) which will be empty of scans (because none have been issued as of yet).

To start a new scan you can do one of two things: You can enter a target IP (or range), select the type of scan, and hit Scan. Or you can open up the Command Wizard to construct a much more specific type of scan.

If you opt for just entering in your target(s) here’s how it works. The first thing you do is enter a target IP address. If you want to use a range of addresses the address would look like this: 192.168.1.1-200. NOTE: There are no spaces in the address.

You then need to select the type of scan to run. There are eight different types of scans to run. The intense scan will give you the most information and the Operating System Detection will give you the least amount of information.

The second method of setting up a scan is the Command Wizard. When you click this button you will walk through the following steps:

• Novice/Expert: Select the level of configuration you want to use.
• Profile/Command: Create a new profile or create a command to run once.
• Profile Details: If you go the Profile route you will have to enter the profile details.
• Scan Type: TCP or Non-TCP scan types as well as inclusion of Services version and Operating system detection.
• Ping Options: ICMP, ACK, SYN, IPPronto, etc details (if needed).
• Scripting Options: If you need to add special scripts to your scan.
• Target Options: Exclude hosts as well as configure ports to scan.
• Source Options: Use decoys, set source address, set source port options if needed.
• Misc Options: Various options to include.

Once you have finished configuring your scan via the Wizard you can hit the Scan button. However, if you opted to go the Profile route you will need to select your new profile from the Profile dropdown list.

Scan results

Figure 2

After your scan has completed you can take a look at your scan results. There are five tabs that will give you various information about the scan. Obviously the Scan Details tab is where you will get a good summation of your scan. To get the low-level details of your scan take a look at the Nmap Output tab. As your scan is running this is the only tab you can view – and it will give you every piece of information you need.

Saving scans

A nice feature of Zenmap is the ability to save scans. Once you have a scan completed you can save your scan and open it for later viewing. The only downfall of this is the Nmap Output is a bit cramped together. While the scan is running the output is displayed in real time so it’s easy to read. When not in real time this output can really be a pain to get through. Fortunately, between the other tabs, you can get all of the information you need quickly and easily.

Final thoughts

Zenmap makes easy work out of the complicated Nmap command utility. If you have any need to map a network or analyze your network topography, Zenmap is the way to go.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/09/map-your-network-with-zenmap/feed/ 1 http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/19/map-your-network-with-lanmap/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/19/map-your-network-with-lanmap/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:23:28 +0000 Jack Wallen http://www.ghacks.net/?p=13710 This morning I needed a visual representation of my local Lan in order to find out what machines were associated with what IP addresses. For this task I used a tool that has come in handy on a number of occasions. That tool? Lanmap. Lanmap is a command-line only tool available for Ubuntu that will monitor your network and compose a 2D image of your network. This image will include information about your machines as well as packets sent and MAC addresses. The tool is incredibly handy to have around.

I will warn you: The creator of Lanmap has dropped this application in leiu of creating a much more robust Lanmap-2. Unfortunately Lanmap-2 is not complete so Lanmap one will have to be used until 2 is complete. Fortunately Lanmap is still in the Ubuntu repositories so installation is a snap. And once installed, Lanmap is equally as easy to use.

Installing Lanmap

As stated earlier, Lanmap is only available for Ubuntu (and Debian-based) systems. Most likely, if you use apt-get, you can install Lanmap. Of course you don’t have to install via command line, but if you want to just issue the command:

sudo apt-get install lanmap

This command will prompt you for a Y or N to install the requirements. Click “y” (no quotes) and hit enter. Lanmap will install quickly and you’ll be ready to map.

If you want to install via GUI tool open up your Add/Remove Software utility (found in the Applications menu in GNOME), do a search for “lanmap” (no quotes), select the resulting lanmap entry, and click Apply. Once you “okay” the dependencies the installation will be off and running.

Using Lanmap

Lanmap is a command line tool that generates an image. The structure of the command is:

lanmap -i INTERFACE -r INTERVAL -T IMAGE_TYPE DIRECTORY_TO_STORE_IMAGE

Here are the specifics:

• INTERFACE: The interface you want to use to listen to your network. Typically this will be in the form of eth0. You can use all without using the -i switch to listen on all interfaces.
• INTERVAL: This sets the interval (in seconds) between two consecutive graph generations (default being 60).
• IMAGE_TYPE: The type of image file you want to generate. The only supported types are: png, svg, and gif.
• DIRECTORY_TO_STORE_IMAGE: Where you want to store the image file.

So if  I want to scan my network with all interfaces and create a png image I would issue the command:

lanmap all -r 30 -T png ~/

Figure 1

The resulting map (I am currently writing on a far smaller network with machines that are not broadcasting their hostnames. You can see the IP addresses and MAC addresses of course (see Figure 1).

You can see one machine (at IP address 192.168.1.10) is broadcasting as “UBUNTU SERVER”, but outside of that, no hostnames are showing up. This is not really a problem at this size of a network. On a larger network I would hope more machines will show up with their hostnames. This, of course, will depend upon your network setup.

Final thoughts

I have used plenty of applications to create network maps that range from too many bells and whistles to too few features. Lanmap ventures close to the latter, but offers just enough features to make it not only useable but useful. Give Lanmap a try, I think you’ll find it as helpful a tool for your networking toolkit as I do.

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