The arp -a command as far as I can tell will only detect other computers
within the same LAN as stated in an email I received. That's helpful, but
there seems to be a way using NetBIOS to get the MAC address.
The website listed in my original post:
http://stealthtests.lockdowncorp.com/
It can get the NetBIOS name and the MAC address of (what appears to be) any
Windows machine directly connected to the internet (no router or firewall
[software or hardware]). Once I unprotected my system, it got my MAC address
and NetBIOS name and it is not on my LAN!
If you have an unprotected Win PC or you can easily (temporarily) unprotect
your PC, try the website.
Does anyone know how they do it?
Thanx
"Gordon Burditt" <go***********@sneaky.lerctr.org> wrote in message
news:bl********@library2.airnews.net...
I'm looking to try to get a users MAC and/or NetBIOS name when they visit
my website. It somehow can be done, I'm not sure with PHP, but it can be
done.
Does anyone have any idea how?
A MAC address in its normal use as an Ethernet address is not
transmitted beyond your local router (but it does pass through
switches and hubs) on an Ethernet connection. Computers connected
by dialup modems may not even HAVE a MAC address. Computers connected
by DSL or cable modem probably pass the MAC address to the first
router on the ISP's end, and no further. Looking at the MAC addresses
coming in to your website will reveal most of them to be the MAC
address of your router, unless you've got a LAN, in which case some
will show up as addresses of local computers on the LAN.
I suspect that NetBIOS may use the MAC address inside the packets
as part of its protocol, and that's how this site gets it. Either
that, or Windows has a MAC-address-query port along with the
credit-card-query port for use by the RIAA to bill you for music.
As an example check out:
http://stealthtests.lockdowncorp.com/
On that site, there are tests that will display NetBIOS & MAC addresses.
(NOTE: if you are properly firewalled or protected it won't display the
information accurately, however if unprotected and not behind a NAT or
router, it works)
It didn't display mine. My systems are on the Internet with public
static IPs and forward and reverse DNS (and the site found correct
IP addresses and DNS, as expected). No NAT. No proxy. The firewall
didn't block anything during this test. But I'm not running Microsoft
software.
It can't display my NetBIOS name because there isn't one.
Gordon L. Burditt