ping -a

[Jayce]

Trying to track down a computer on the network that wasn't exactly "playing by the rules."

We have the IP, but not the host name of the computer. We ran ping -a on the IP and we could ping it, but it would not give us the host name.

I ran ping -a on my IP on my laptop and it gave me my host name + pinged the address. But, as I said, I do not get these results when I do this to the computer IP address in question.

Any idea why?

 

[Kharn]

Give network magic a try jayce, failing that Nmap.

 

[Jayce]

Thanks, I'll look into that.

Meanwhile, any idea why it doesn't pick up the host name? I'm just confused as to why it works for me but not the other computer.

 

[Kharn]

To be honest i havent mate, if i knew i really would give you a explanation but i think you know me well enough to know that i wont try an blow smoke up your backside if I havent got a clue what is going on.

What is this computer doing anyway?

 

[Jayce]

Instant messaging. I work for a school district, so that's a big "no no" here.

 

[Kharn]

Ah ok that is a no no, just a question mate but have you locked down Ebuddy? that crappy MSN clone that runs in web browsers?

If it's a client like MSN, yahoo etc there is a few tools i have seen of late that will just kick the computer of the network temoreraly, but if you want a idea where the somputer is try spiceworks (I think thats the name) it will like Cisscos network magic report prity much all the info about a computer on the network.

 

[Jayce]

Yeah. In reality, if we can find the host name we can lock down who it was on the computer.

We have a couple hundred computers, but all of them are named in order. There's 30 per classroom, and specific students are assigned to each computer.

So if I can find what host name it was who was IMing, I can from them figure out what class it was, the time, and essentially what student.

 

[office politics]

What can people tell from my IP address? - Ask Leo!

The "-a" switch tells ping to do a "reverse DNS lookup" and print the first domain name it finds associated with the IP address you've specified.

nslookup can be used to perform dns queries.

 

[Kharn]

Yeah. In reality, if we can find the host name we can lock down who it was on the computer.

We have a couple hundred computers, but all of them are named in order. There's 30 per classroom, and specific students are assigned to each computer.

So if I can find what host name it was who was IMing, I can from them figure out what class it was, the time, and essentially what student.

I think that Spiceworks might be the best option then mate, I am sure the new one has the ability to tell you what user is logged into that computer, so not only can you tell what user is logged in but get proof of it with a Nmap process scan.

Do you guy's have the IM client removed from the computers or is it down to the user privs?

 

[Jayce]

Saxon - I'm sure nothing was downloaded, seeing as though students don't have admin priv for things like that. 99% of the time what they do is find a proxy that isn't blocked and hit up meebo.com, which works for most all messaging clients and works strictly off of java, I think... or something like that.

I'm a big fan of meebo, but it's just not something that is allowed in the library at school. Know what I mean?

Question, though, since you seem to tinker with Linux... in Ubuntu, is there a way to find the host name of a given IP? I have a desktop at work that runs Ubuntu that I use for other things, but if I could use that machine to help aid in pinpointing this student, we might have a winner.