Managed Switch Port Mapping Tool Operating Requirements

Installed Edition or USB Flash Drive Edition

This software is available in two editions:

1. As an app that must be installed on your hard drive - download the trial now.
2. As a portable USB version that it does not require installation on the host Windows system. The software runs from a portable high speed USB Flash Drive.

Operating System

Windows 11, 10 32 or 64 bit editions (requires GUI, this is not a command line tool) - Windows server GUI editions will work too, but be aware that data is saved in separate user locations - different users cannot access the same data. You can use this application on Apple MacOS if you use VMware Fusion or Parallels to host a supported Windows operating system.

This software is a 32 bit program that operates equally well in either 32 bit or 64 bit operating systems. (We no longer test on Windows older than 10.)

Network Access

The software requires IPv4 network access (LAN, WAN or VPN) from your computer to the managed switches. (IPv6 not currently supported, but support is planned)

The switch must have SNMP v1 or v2c or v3 activated - some switch manufacturers disable SNMP by default. You will need the SNMP v1 or v2c read-only community name to access the switch (it is like a password) or SNMPv3 read access credentials. You may need to set permissions in the switch ACL so your IP address can access the switch. Some switches may require changes to settings allowing SNMP to access Bridge-MIB. For best results, two additional SNMP enabled devices may be queried for their ARP tables.

Requirements for obtaining IPv4 addresses: Managed switches usually operate at layer 2 which means they keep track of the MAC addresses attached to their ports and report the information in Bridge-Mib and/or qBridge-mib. The IP addresses are not kept in the switch's port forwarding tables. When we retrieve the data from the switch, we have to find the IP address that matches the list of device MAC addresses for each port. We do this by searching ARP tables from various devices. We provide two user defined methods of retrieving ARP tables from other SNMP enabled devices such as a server or router. Ping Sweep pre-fills your computer's local ARP table with local network segment IP/MAC addresses. You can also import a static list of MAC/IP address combinations in Database Manager. Switches operating in Layer 3 mode often have larger ARP tables since IP addresses are being tracked in addition to MAC addresses.

Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) and Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) data contained in the switch can be shown helping you establish network mapping neighbor relationships between the switch and devices connected to it. For instance, Windows 8 and 10 machines now send LLDP information by default. Most switches communicate with each other either with LLDP, CDP or both.