In C# how do I get the list of local computer names like what one gets viewing the Network in windows explorer

Question

There are a lot of questions about getting the name and IP addresses of the local machine and several about getting IP addresses of other machines on the LAN (not all answer

Answer 1

public List<String> ListNetworkComputers()
{
    List<String> _ComputerNames = new List<String>();
    String _ComputerSchema = "Computer";
    System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry _WinNTDirectoryEntries = new System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("WinNT:");
    foreach (System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry _AvailDomains in _WinNTDirectoryEntries.Children)
    {
        foreach (System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry _PCNameEntry in _AvailDomains.Children)
        {
            if (_PCNameEntry.SchemaClassName.ToLower().Contains(_ComputerSchema.ToLower()))
            {
                _ComputerNames.Add(_PCNameEntry.Name);
            }
        }
    }
    return _ComputerNames;
}

Answer 2

This seems to be what you are after: How get list of local network computers?

In C#: you can use Gong Solutions Shell Library (https://sourceforge.net/projects/gong-shell/)

Answer 3

You can try using the System.DirectoryServices namespace.

var root = new DirectoryEntry("WinNT:");
foreach (var dom in root.Children) {
    foreach (var entry in dom.Children) {
        if (entry.Name != "Schema") {
            Console.WriteLine(entry.Name);
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You need to broadcast an ARP request for all IPs within a given range. Start by defining the base IP on your network and then setting an upper identifier.

I was going to write up some code examples etc but it looks like someone has covered this comprehensively here;

Stackoverflow ARP question