Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Enabling the Network Map on Windows Server 2008

As you may have guessed, I've been running Windows Vista for quite some time now, I'm sure many of you have too, and are eagerly awaiting Windows Server 2008, and of course, utlimately, Windows Small Business Server 2008!

Well, looking at my Windows Vista Networking & Sharing Center, I was able to pull up the network map of my laptop (modified to fit this blog):


Wait a sec, where did you get that?

Ah, here's how I found this nifty feature:

  • Click Start, then Network.

  • Then right below the address-bar, you'll see Network and Sharing Center, click it

  • Then above the graphic, click View Full Map, and there you have it

One of the things you'll notice immediately being on a Small Business Server 2008 box is that by default, this handy map is disabled. The reasoning for this is because as a Domain Controller, there could be many many machines attached to the network,and discoverying the layout of the network is not a task you really want your domain controller to be doing (you know, over allowing logons to happen, e-mail to be processed etc.). But it's not that big of a deal for small networks with some of the high powered machines you might have.

So here is how to turn it back on!

  • Crack open your trusted local policy editor on the DC by clicking Start and running gpedit.msc, you'll have to accept the LUA prompt

  • Browse down to Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Link-Layer Topology Discovery.

  • Once in there switch both Turn on Mapper I/O (LLTDIO) Driver and the Turn on Responder (RSPNDR) driver to Enabled from Not Configured.

  • Now refresh the map, you don't even need gpupdate /force because it's the local policy!

Enjoy the map view of your network.

Please note that some restrictions apply (as in XP machines without the LLTD responder installed will not reply, and any class of machine lower than Windows XP, including MAC and various forms of *ix)




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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the article. I did it, forced a gpupdate to be sure and still get the message "Network Mapping is disabled by default...." The path should be "Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Network and Link-Layer Topology Discovery."

goel said...

While you are enabling "Turn on Mapper I/O (LLTDIO driver" and that second setting be sure to check in the options "Allow operation while in domain". I did that and it worked for me :)