How to use ARP Ping to Detect Duplicate IP Addresses

Update January 2014: there is a dedicated Duplicate IP Address Scanning Tool in NetScanTools Pro.

I've mentioned before how due to past problems with online games sites I have my son use a Linux distribution called Knoppix 6.0.1 that runs from a CD inside a Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine. Well due to a problem with a DHCP server, I found that Knoppix was taking the same IP address as an HP Laser Printer. I had been having trouble with the printer on the weekend - it decided on it's own to change it's fixed IP address.

So I decided to use the situation as a real world demonstration of how to find a duplicate IP address. This can be done from NetScanTools Pro using the ARP Ping Tool. Since I had my suspicions about the printer, I used the printer IP. The video shows the results quite clearly.

http://www.netscantools.com/videos/duplicateipdetect/duplicateipdetect.html

In NetScanTools Pro v11 we will be introducing a tool to scan the whole subnet for duplicate IPs, not just one at a time.

Windows 7 RTM on MSDN

They posted it yesterday and I just confirmed it's there. Now the decision for my OS testing system: do I erase the Vista 64 that's on there now and replace it with Win7 x64? Should I try upgrading it? if I erase it all the Virtual machine OS's will be destroyed and I'll have to rebuild them -- or maybe not -- I can just save the virtual OS files onto a backup and reinstall Virtual PC and reload them. And does Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 run on Windows 7? I know it can host it. Questions...

Windows 7 knows it is in a Virtual Machine

Today I did a Windows Update on Win7beta to get Tuesday's patches from Microsoft. There was at least one.

Then I saw a link in the start menu for games. Cool. So I opened it up and saw the usual games plus three that I don't recall seeing the past: Internet Checkers, Internet Backgammon and Internet Spades. I'll be trying those out soon. What was more interesting for me was the area on the right where it said "This computer's Performance Information has not been created."

OK, so let's create it -- I clicked on "Rate this computer", then again on the "Rate this computer button" on the next page and got a somewhat surprising message "Unable to run an assessment inside a virtual machine. WinSAT can not obtain accurate measurements inside of a virtual machine. Please try again running directly on the native hardware." DARN! -- but cool nevertheless. It knew it was running inside Virtual PC 2007. Maybe I should find a spare hard drive to put this on in another machine...

Installing Windows 7 Beta on Virtual PC 2007

Yes, it worked. In a word: painless. I had no problems installing the new Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) on Virtual PC 2007 sp1. I assumed that Win7 was closest in architecture to Vista, so I selected a Vista configuration and bumped the Virtual Machine memory up to the required 1GB. I left the default max virtual hard drive size at 64GB. The host OS is Vista 64 on a quad core 8GB machine. I "captured" the ISO install file located on a network drive on another machine, then rebooted the virtual machine and installation proceeded from there.

Things I noticed about installation: less user interaction required to get it installed. Yes, there was the usual location and time stuff, but there was less other stuff. And it only rebooted once to complete the installation which was great. I did ask for the product key which I was given before I downloaded it and it did the product activation automatically. Whether all this simplicity remains in the RTM version, we'll just have to see.

Windows 7 Observations: some user interface changes -- more glowing things like icons and bars. The start menu button glows when your cursor hits it. The layout of the start menu is a bit cleaner as is the Windows Explorer layout. The start menu does look fairly much unchanged other than small appearance changes. Everything is where it was in Vista. The taskbar is bigger -- approximately twice as high and the programs are shown as icons without their names. This appears to be a departure from earlier OS's. Maybe some of you will notice that the default background screen is a fish -- not just any fish, but a betta -- you know, a play on the word BETA. I think it should be a active background with the fish moving around. What a cool timewaster that would be.

Another biggee is less and I mean way less of those annoying UAC messages "are you sure you are sure you are sure...". I was able to open the registry editor without a big argument from the operating system -- nice!

Another thing that is on every window titlebar is the "Send Feedback" link. I guess they want feedback, but since I've only used it for an hour, I'll hold off.

So far, I like what I see!