Discovering non managed devices in a network such as a lan using http

Abstract

The topology of a computer network may be by the process of discovery in which each of the devices of the network is interrogated to thereby produce details of the network and its operation, preferably in the form of a network map which may be displayed on a visual display unit showing the devices and links between the devices. At its simplest, and where the device is a 'managed' device, this information is usually provided by interrogation using a known protocol, such as the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), of the so-called 'agent' of each device which stores the device's unique MAC address, the type of device and the MAC addresses embedded in the data passing into a particular port which thereby gives the MAC addresses of the origin of the data and hence the MAC address of the devices which are connected to the ports directly or indirectly. However, many devices are not SNMP enabled and so the discovery or interrogation of the network produces a result which indicates that these non SNMP enabled devices are displayed as 'generic' devices. There is described a device for use in a network, said device including information identifying the device, which information is made accessible during HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) authentication procedure.