Device on Network

[Qeomash]

So, moved to a new apartment that has been pre-wired for Ethernet. Has a small patch panel, wires running to each room, a sketchy looking splitter thing that I wont use, and...a purple ethernet cable obviously added later.

It appears to be running up to the attic, and when plugged into the router the port actually does light up. It also seems to get an IP address, though I'm unable to ping the address nor contact it on the usual http or ssh ports.

Any ideas on figuring out what it might be attached to? Getting up into the attic might be difficult/impossible.

Edit: Got the attic open, and the wire appears to be running up and along the apex of the attic along to the other apartments in the complex. I'm guessing some security system/monitoring service or similar.

[Bardicrune]

You can get a little better idea of what it is (at least the mfg of the network interface chip) by pinging it (even though it doesn't respond) and then using arp -a to show the mac address. Then google the first 3 hex sets of the mac address (first 3 sets determine network vendor id, last 3 determine device id). I.E. a result of 00-1c-c0 is Intel and would most likely be a PC or laptop.

Another approach would be to run a port scanner on it such as nmap. This will determine open ports and possibly even recognize the OS (ex. nmap -A -T4 192.168.1.1). This may enable you to identify the device or even connect to it if it is running some kind of service. Common ports are: (80 or 8080 = http) (443 = ssl) (22=ssh or scp) (23=telnet) (21= ftp).

[Ratatapa]

Do you have a website that we can look up for device ID?

I'm doing tests like that at home I'm trying with my apple TV

The first 3 gives me Apple OK, but cannot find a website for the last 3

Edit sorry for the derail

[xopher]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/kaboodle/

[Bardicrune]

The only thing you can determine from a MAC is manufacturer. Last three are just a unique identifier for the MAC address. Every network interface should be its own special snowflake. No two should have the same id.

Edit: I "misspoke" earlier when I said "device id" the proper term should have been "unique id". You cannot determine device type from the MAC address.