Determine Client's Computer Name

Question

I am building an intranet site that will display different lists based on the computer name because different computers are in different areas, is there a way (within a cont

Answer 1

Here's an IE-only solution. It works in IE8, with multiple security warnings.

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
   var ax = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Network");
   document.write(ax.UserName + '<br />'); //logged in account name
   document.write(ax.ComputerName + '<br />'); //Windows PC name
</script>

Answer 2

code in VB :

Dim myIP As IPAddress = IPAddress.Parse(Request.UserHostName)
    Dim GetIPHost As IPHostEntry = Dns.GetHostEntry(myIP)
    Dim compName As List(Of String) = GetIPHost.HostName.ToString.Split("").ToList

    return(compName.First)

Answer 3

The only way I know of to inspect the client is through the ServerVariables collection on the Request object (should be available for MVC code).

See http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/092298-3.shtml for more information. REMOTE_HOST and REMOTE_ADDR look like candidates.

Answer 4

Try this:

string name = Request.UserHostName;

Answer 5

I got it working using the following:

string IP = Request.UserHostName;
string compName = CompNameHelper.DetermineCompName(IP);

code from compnamehelper:

public static string DetermineCompName(string IP)
{
    IPAddress myIP = IPAddress.Parse(IP);
    IPHostEntry GetIPHost = Dns.GetHostEntry(myIP);
    List<string> compName = GetIPHost.HostName.ToString().Split('.').ToList();
    return compName.First();
}

Answer 6

I think you are better off using one of these methods to tie a user to a location:

• a cookie that is set once the user self-selects their location
• having the user login to the site so that you can track them uniquely that way
• remembering user by IP address

There is no way of ensuring remote hostnames are unique. The same issue occurs with IP because of proxies, dynamic IP, etc., but I think it will be a little more reliable. Also, you can do geolocation by IP address.