i need to write a program that auto detects windows and unix machines in C# on a network then copy a folder from a windows shared directory to the remote machine and gather how many processors are on the machine. I don't know of any C# functions that would help with detecting machines and their ips. I don't have access to active directory or have a central server for all the machines. I can create a perl program to run on the client machines. (also I'm not sure how to access windows shares on a unix machines) general guidance and code examples would be appreciated thanks
You can use Nmap in order to discover network machines, it is client-less and with the -O parameter it will tell you if the machine is running a Windows OS or a Linux one. You can then use SNMP or WMI to retrieve the number of CPUs even though that requires machines to have SNMP or WMI installed. However with a client running on the remote machine everything would be much easier, expecially if you have to copy files.