Command Prompt

[wainuitech]

netstat cannot do what the OP is asking for. The only place he can get a list of current wireless clients is from his AP;there is no command available in a standard Windows install which can achieve this.

The OP was asking for options to play about with.

As for showing devices connected to the network, there is a command. And relating for the Wireless, ( in bold) can you please explain then when using a command prompt, See pic's below -- The 1st command shows all the ethernet devices by IP address, and then I connected my Tablet, and Laptop Via wireless and now they are showing as well. # 10 & 17 are the wireless.

Edited: just for the hell of it I just connected my phone as well Via wireless, now shows as 39 Pic 3



Doesn't show their names but does show as being connected via Command prompt. How so if theres no command ?

PS: this is a Win7 PC, nothing fancy.

Edited2 the command is arp -a

[Kame]

It can be achieved, could write an assembly program using debug to achieve it, but we won't go there.

Basically it'll be better to enable telnet on the router to make it easier but again its not needed as you can use telnet to go through the web interface.

If you enable telnet, you could telnet to the router and follow the options you have or create a batch just to get the info you want.

Else, use telnet through the web interface and create the posted data required to login and then get the page you want but you'll have to sift through the HTML for the info you want.

I'm not sure how powerful command prompt is, but its no where near as powerful as bash on Linux, or maybe I just can't think of other commands you could use to filter the HTML out just so you get the info you need.

Cheers,

KK

[Erayd]

The OP was asking for options to play about with.

The OP also specifically asked for options to "see how many devices are connected to a wirless router" - nothing you have posted thus far is capable of achieving this goal. Netstat (and ARP) are handy, but neither can do what you have claimed. As you mentioned netstat as a direct response to the part of the OP's question regarding wireless, the obvious interpretation is that you are suggesting that it can do what the OP has asked, which it in fact cannot.

As for showing devices connected to the network, there is a command. And relating for the Wireless, ( in bold) can you please explain then when using a command prompt, See pic's below -- The 1st command shows all the ethernet devices by IP address, and then I connected my Tablet, and Laptop Via wireless and now they are showing as well. # 10 & 17 are the wireless.

Edited: just for the hell of it I just connected my phone as well Via wireless, now shows as 39 Pic 3



Doesn't show their names but does show as being connected via Command prompt. How so if theres no command ?

You're looking at devices which can be seen via ARP on the same layer 2 network. This cannot distinguish which clients are wireless and which are not - ergo, it's not what the OP asked for; he specifically requested something that could list wireless clients.

The closest you can get from a client machine is to use a utility which can sniff wifi packets directly (which works around features such as client isolation), but even this isn't a proper solution, as it will only list clients which are in range of the WiFi card's radio - other clients which cannot be seen by the machine doing the scan, but can be seen by the AP, will not be listed. The canonical source of the information that the OP has asked for is in fact the AP; there's nothing on his Windows machine which can achieve the required result.

It's possible the OP has worded his question incorrectly, and what he actually wanted was something to "list all visible devices on the same layer 2 network" - if this is the case, then ARP is useful. It's just not what the OP actually asked for.

Edited2 the command is arp -a

Yup - it's not netstat. Netstat is intended for viewing the current state of the network stack, including connections terminating on (or sometimes passing through, depending on config) the client machine.

Arp is a tool for examining the local ARP cache, and performing various ARP actions - the exact capabilities vary depending on which implementation of it you're using.

[wainuitech]

One post it was asked different commands to try. As we all know theres MANY depending on what you want to achieve. Some are simple and others are complicated, So any unknown command can be a learning experience.

yes a GUI would be easier and is also what most people would use.

All the commands that have been presented by everyone will do a task depending on what it is, add in different switches and they will give other results and a person will learn what they do.

So instead of simply coming back to the forum after a long absence and making negative remarks about others suggestions why not actually suggest some of the things to try, which was the original request.

In the past your scripts and suggestions have been really helpful, please dont be the kind of person who returns and a does nothing but criticize others.

[Kame]

If you are going to use the command prompt. I really suggest getting something like ConEmu (preferred) or Console to improve the UI and your experience. I would even replace the shell with something more powerful but these UIs will work with the standard shell as well as alternatives.

I was trying to find maybe a clone of the command prompt so I could run it myself on Linux and also give commands that I would recommend using. It's been that long, that even the names for such commands have faded me or replaced with how we do it in Linux. I may just create a virtual machine with Windows on it. I haven't looked at WINE yet and I'm not sure how much DosBox actually covers. I just want to see what programs exist but I remember at one time you needed to download or have versions of Windows that gave you more administrative/networking tools that wasn't available for home users. I think these tools were more for automating installations, etc.

Cheers,

KK

[Erayd]

So instead of simply coming back to the forum after a long absence and making negative remarks about others suggestions why not actually suggest some of the things to try, which was the original request.

In the past your scripts and suggestions have been really helpful, please dont be the kind of person who returns and a does nothing but criticize others.

Look mate, all I did was offer a simple, civil, one-line correction to something which was way off base (your netstat post), because the misinformation would have only served to confuse the OP. You explicitly told him netstat could do something that he asked for, when it does nothing of the kind.

You obviously took some kind of offense to being corrected (although I can't fathom why), and made a failed attempt to rebut - in the interests of avoiding further confusion, I dismantled that post as well, and provided further supporting technical information, as it appeared you were still under the impression your original post was correct.

Rest assured, I have no intention of being "the kind of person who returns and does nothing but criticize others" - but if I see information that is blatantly wrong, I will correct it, as I have done many times in the past. The entire point of answering help threads is to provide assistance, so ensuring that replies are accurate and do not further confuse the OP seems fundamentally important to achieving that goal. Throwing your passive-aggressive toys out of the cot helps nobody, and in my opinion was unwarranted - if you have a legitimate issue with my post, please state it, rather than attacking me personally.

...why not actually suggest some of the things to try...

Because I spend my days in a bash shell, not in Windows, and there seem to be many others in this thread who are doing a perfectly fine job of providing useful information already. Also, it's the kind of information that can be easily found with a simple Google search (e.g. "interesting commands on windows").

[wainuitech]

I wasn't attacking you personally and no I didn't take offense at all, just pointing out that you can see a wireless connection via command prompt as long as you know what to look for.

if I see information that is blatantly wrong

Its not blatantly wrong.

Example: lets say all the Computers are given a static IP and you know what they are, ( ill make this up IP ending in 2-20) then all of a sudden another appears with a IP ending in 56, chances are very good someones joined the network and if its not by Ethernet it would usually be Via wireless. May not have been ONLY wireless but they do show once they were connected.( as the screen shots showed)

A blatantly wrong command would be giving a command to delete instead of copying ( example)

Also stated yes a GUI would be easier. That's not always possible either, how many times have you been to a persons place, and that invisible person "no one" has changed the default user name and password, its not written down anywhere and you cant enter the Router without resetting it ?

Most commands have options and the best way to learn is to either try them with the /? or look them up.

There was actually two questions asked in the original post.

it's the kind of information that can be easily found with a simple Google search

I think we all know that some don't bother, or in many cases depending on what a person types in the search can bring up different answers, and sometimes not the ones they are looking for.

others in this thread who are doing a perfectly fine job of providing useful information

Some people will only post a link to an external site. That doesn't mean they can do the task or know the outcome.

There can be commands posted and some wouldn't have clue what they did. Just like if you posted a bash shell command, it may not give any clue as to what it does, but you would know.

Heres a good example - you'll know what this means, (I had to look it up) the command fgrep

[wainuitech]

Im NOT having a "go" just ran out of time before and had to go talk to customers. Just pointing out that it appears the actual answer given was not read correctly relating to the comment.

You explicitly told him netstat could do something that he asked for, when it does nothing of the kind.

The exact answer was

On your other question: Try
netstat -a

Some other reading relating to netstat

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../bb490947.aspx

Please note the word TRY -- as well as a link to what the commands do. Try means " To make an effort to do or accomplish (something); attempt" if the link was clicked the OP could see what the commands would do.

As for arp -a i can tell in a few moments which are the wireless, all the computers and printers here have static IP's (and written down) so if anything new appears I know its not Ethernet so it has to be wireless.

[Alex B]

How do you think the debate is going when you have to justify the word "try"??

[wainuitech]

Simple, give it a go see what happens, if it does what you want then fine if not nothing lost.

The command net view will give the names of computers connected via Ethernet

if you use arp -a it will give all connected devices by ip address.