You are fixing a flakey network connection and you suspect the switch port is messing up. How do you find the port that it is plugged into? Trace the cable? Use exquisitely detailed network maps? Be blessed enough to have properly labeled wall jacks? If you are still reading this, those options are not available or you want a better way. Well, read on!
LDWin is an open source link discovery tool that brings Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to Windows. It displays the name, IP, VLAN, and port of the switch that you are connected to. You can download LDWin from here.
Using Group Policy Preferences, I deploy LDWin to all of my computers. I use a file preference to stick it in a local tools folder.
I then use a shortcut preference to add a link to Windows Administrative Tools. This provides quick access from the Start Menu for any administrator (as UAC will be triggerred when LDWin is opened).
By using LDWin and distributing it with Group Policy, I can quickly find what port any computer is using. A big thanks to Chris Hall for this tool. Now, if only I had a program that could find the other end of my cable tester. Those dang dongles disappear!
I had a crack at writing my own version of this recently – https://github.com/gavc/clldp its based around pktmon so it needs W10 or W11 (and .net 8)
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Currently this is being blocked as a download via Microsoft Edge and coming up as malicious on Virustotal from 6 sources.
Super handy. Will save taking the Linkrunner along!