Discover the IP of the switch/router

I am wanting to look into some settings on a few networks switches but I have no idea what IP they are. I do not believe there were ever setup with a static IP. They are connected to a DHCP network. Is there anyway to trace the path from a pc to a another pc and see what switches it travels through?:confused

 

How big is the network? How many systems and how many switches?

 

It's pretty good sized, about 2000 pc's and 40ish switches. I found a program called "The Dude" after I posted earlier. :major It seemed to do the job. I found the two in the room I was in after it searched for a while. It was able to sort stuff by the model so I was able to eventually find it by process of elimination. Now that I will be able to find the IP, set it to a static one and change the names I am thinking about going one step further. I work in a district with 4 buildings and I'm wondering if partitioning the network in some way, subnets or vlans, would help with network traffic. Any thoughts?:confused

 

Wow you dont have any vlans on that network?? you the network admin? id do some research on vlans if i were you. it will definitely help with your traffic management.

 

No, I'm not the main network admin. I suggested VLans once before, but that I was told that it was more trouble than it was worth. I have one entry point into my building I might vlan it alone, but would that cut the network traffic down from the rest of the district? All they need to reach is the building server, the pdc, the home directories server, and the windows update server. The terminal servers for the building are onsite, the others I just mentioned are in a central location. Seems like it would help to direct traffic, I'll read up on VLans and see. Thanks.

 

i would suggest a app called spiceworks. it is one i use to help manage a network. it will scan your network and id what is using the ip address. it find and ids everything if you can log in to it.
also just as a side note. i took over a smaller network that was setup just as sloppily as yours 3 years ago and i am still fixing it.

you candownload from spiceworks.com and its free

 

we use spiceworks for qork orders. I didn't do the initial setup but I did know it could scan. I assumed it didn't work since it only had a few servers in it's list, but maybe it wasn't given the time or the right settings to do a full scan. thanks.

 

you have set the ip range for it to scan. fyi the new version came out today 4.0 it looks good so far but i have play with it some more, and let do a full scan of network

 

I left it doing a full network scan yesterday. 10.250.0.0/16 That should check everything. Of course being summer right now not everything is on but at least all the servers and switches are.

 

let me know it goes