LANsurveyor Express for Microsoft® Visio®

LANsurveyor Express for Microsoft® Visio® is a powerful Visio 2007 add-on that makes it easy to get comprehensive network maps in just minutes! Accessible via the Visio toolbar, LANsurveyor Express automatically discovers your network and produces topology maps in Visio format.

Frequently Asked Questions About LANsurveyor Express

   What SNMP MIBs does LANsurveyor Express use?

   LANsurveyor Express uses the following SNMP MIBs:

  • MIB-II that exists on nearly all IP routers and many IP devices.
  • Printer MIB that exists on some IP printers.
  • Bridge MIB to determine switch port connectivity.
  • Repeater MIB to determine hub port connectivity.
  • Various Cisco-specific MIBs to determine user-defined interface names and switch ports.

  How does LANsurveyor Express's network discovery affect my network?

  During network discovery, LANsurveyor Express uses an almost unmeasurable amount of network bandwidth. For each type of discovery method (ICMP Ping, NetBIOS, SIP, etc.), LANsurveyor Express sends one small (< 300 byte) UDP packet per IP address. In addition, LANsurveyor Express breaks up large IP address ranges into blocks of 10 addresses and waits several seconds for responses from those 10 addresses. By searching the network in this way, LANsurveyor Express should have no noticeable affect on your network bandwidth or devices.

  How is LANsurveyor Express licensed?

  LANsurveyor Express can be installed on a single machine to provide unlimited mapping. This means that LANsurveyor can be installed on a laptop computer and used at any number of sites for mapping and management purposes.

  How do I map every IP address to its corresponding switch or hub port?

  LANsurveyor Express uses a number of techniques to map managed switch/hub ports to their corresponding IP address nodes. It's important to remember many switches and hubs are layer 2 (Ethernet address) devices so they do not have layer 3 (IP address) information.

  My SNMP device has custom MIBs; how do I input them into LANsurveyor?

  LANsurveyor Express does not support the use of custom MIBs and there is no way to enter a custom MIB into LANsurveyor Express.

LANsurveyor Express only uses MIBs specified by internet standards. Manufacturers of SNMP devices may choose to implement all of the SNMP standards or they may choose to implement a subset.

Below is the list of standards LANsurveyor Express uses during the auto-discovery process. LANsurveyor Express may not use all of these during auto-discovery, it depends on the SNMP devices on your network. If you are unsure about which standards your device supports, check the documentation or contact the device manufacturer.

  • RFC 1213
  • RFC 1493
  • RFC 2108
  • RFC 2674

  Why is LANsurveyor Express having trouble exporting its map to Microsoft® Visio®?

  LANsurveyor Express requires the use of Visio 2007 or later. If Visio 2007 is not installed, LANsurveyor Express will not be able to render its map after network discovery completes.

  Why is LANsurveyor Express complaining about admin privileges when it starts up?

  The only feature LANsurveyor Express will not be able to enable without admin privileges is the discovery of nodes via ICMP ping. LANsurveyor Express attempts to "ping" itself when starting and may return an error if the user does not have administrative rights. The problem is usually insufficient user privileges.

You can confirm this diagnosis by bringing up a Windows command prompt and typing "ping 127.0.0.1". This command attempts to ping the local machine. If this fails, then Windows is indicating that you do not have the required privileges to send ICMP packets.

  LANsurveyor Express is hanging or crashing. What can I do?

  If the hang or crash condition is repeatable, do the following:

  • Click the Advanced button at the bottom-left of the LANsurveyor Express window
  • Select the Logging tab
  • Check all logging options
  • Click OK
  • Duplicate the hang or crash
  • Before running LANsurveyor Express again, create a support ticket, www.solarwinds.com/support/, and attach the "LANsurveyor Log.txt" file, which is found in the LANsurveyor Express application folder. The default location for the file is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\SolarWinds\SolarWinds LANsurveyor.

If you are experiencing a crash, do the following:

  • Type drwtsn32 at a Windows command line prompt
  • See if there are any files related to LANsurveyor Express in the "Application Errors" list at the bottom of the Dr.Watson application
  • Double-click on one or more of these files
  • Select the entire text of the error

Copy and paste the error text and send the error to support by creating a ticket at www.solarwinds.com/support/.

  Can LANsurveyor Express use stencils and shapes provided by 3rd parties?

  The full version of LANsurveyor enables you to replace device icons with icons of your choice. When you export the LANsurveyor map to Visio, these icons will be converted into Visio shapes. It is possible to replace shapes, but to do so, you must change the shape properties into the form LANsurveyor Express expects and then replace a current shape with the one you want to use.

The steps to complete this action are listed below:

  • Go to Tools->Options and select the Advanced tab. Uncheck the box that says "Open each ShapeSheet in the same window".
  • Open the LANsurveyor Express stencil that contains the shape you want to replace and the stencil that contains the shape you want to use.
  • Right click on the LANsurveyor Express stencil and select Edit Stencil.
  • Copy the shape you want to use into the LANsurveyor Express stencil.
  • Right click on your shape and select Edit Master->Master Shape. Do the same for the LANsurveyor Express shape.
  • In the shape window, select your shape and go to Window->Shape Sheet. Do the same for the LANsurveyor Express shape. Edit the shape sheet of the new shape so that it matches the shape sheet of the old shape.
    • Note: Do not change the Shape Transform section or the User.ShapeType and User.SubShapeType rows of the User-defined Cells section.
  • Save the new shape.
  • Rename the old shape to ShapeName-Old where ShapeName is the current name of the shape. Rename the new shape to ShapeName where ShapeName was the name of the LANsurveyor shape.
  • Save the LANsurveyor Express Stencil.
  • Build a new map using LANsurveyor Express. Your new shape should include the updated icon(s).

  Where is the LANsurveyor Express evaluation?

  LANsurveyor Express does not have an evaluation available; however, SolarWinds has made the LANsurveyor evaluation available so customers can preview the mapping capabilities of LANsurveyor Express.