Discovery App

The Discovery application creates an inventory of the devices on your networks along with their attributes: device types, names, addresses, interfaces, VLANs, resources, and other connected or associated devices. The app allows you to identify and analyze network devices and acts as a jumping-off point for further analysis using other apps, such as Wi-Fi, Path Analysis, and connection tests.

Devices are discovered in the local broadcast domains where the EtherScope is physically connected, as well as other configured subnets. By default, discovery processes run out of all available test and management ports, wired and wireless.

Discovery Topics

This chapter describes how the Discovery process and app screens work, shows examples of Discovery data, and details the Discovery settings.

See the Introduction below or skip to one of the following topics:

Main Discovery List Screen

Discovery Details Screens

Device Types

Device Names and Authorization

Discovery Settings

Problem Settings

TCP Port Scan Settings

Introduction to Discovery

Discovery uses Ethernet, fiber, and Wi-Fi to find, classify, and display the details of network components. Information provided by Discovery can include the following:

  • IP, BSSID, and MAC addresses
  • Device Names
  • Device Connectivity
  • SNMP Data
  • Network Problems
  • Interface Details and Statistics

Devices are discovered via ARP and Ping sweeps; SNMP, DNS, mDNS, and netBIOS queries; and passive traffic monitoring. Discovery classifies each device as it is found. Up to 2,000 devices can be reported.

The Discovery app also detects Problems with discovered devices, including Warning and Failure conditions.

The EtherScope's discovery process begins when the unit is powered on. A channel scanning notification in the top Status Bar indicates that the EtherScope is scanning Wi-Fi channels to passively discover devices on the wireless network. Once a network connection (wired or Wi-Fi, test or management) is established, the active discovery process begins.

The discovery progress notification icon indicates the progress of active discovery.

NOTE: If you upload or save Discovery results before discovery is 100% complete, data may be missing from your results.

This icon indicates that no links are currently available for active discovery, either because none of the ports enabled for discovery are connected or because AutoTest is running.

The Discovery app consistently monitors network traffic, but the active discovery process reruns every 90 minutes by default. You can select a different Refresh Interval in the Discovery Settings.