Select a switch and open a telnet in a VB programme

[AlexPilot]

I would like to get a simple programme that would have a list of all our switches and be able to select a switch fromt he drop down box and click a button which will open up a telnet session to that switch. I can get my head around how I would link the IP addresses to the list of switches using variables but I am not sure how I would call up the command prompt and get it to start the session automaticly.

Any suggestions?

[p858snake]

This may help: Launching and Monitoring External Programs from VB.NET Applications

[localzuk]

You can either do it via launching an external application, or you could create your own telnet client such as this: Quick tool : A minimalistic Telnet library - CodeProject

[MYK-IT]

Could try SolarWinds IP Address Tracker, right click ip of switch then can select Ping, TraceRoute, Telnet, IP Network Tracker or Web Browse.

Or just create a shortcut for each switch with the relevent command, or 'tart' it up using AutoIT

[srochford]

Have you thought about using Putty?

If you're reading all your switches from a database then it might not help but if you're going to have to type them in manually then you can just build a list of "saved sessions" which include a name/IP address and the fact that you want Telnet (or SSH, RAW etc)

Putty can also be launched with the name of a session - eg:
[code]
putty -load switch01
[/putty]

[AlexPilot]

Thanks for the tips on programmes that would do it but would rather write one myself just for the fun.

[PiqueABoo]

Have you thought about using Putty?

Couple of years ago I hacked the Putty code so a dotNet app could call it to make a SSH connection to a particular brand of firewall appliance, then automagically spit some commands at it to turn policies on and off, import AD OUs full of computer into groups of FQDN address objects for use as firewall policy targets etc. Ultimately it all worked fine but I thought the Putty (command line) code was **evil**. I actually like the GUI client though.

but would rather write one myself just for the fun.

Telnet itself? There's a VB Telnet library on CodePlex - I suppose you could read that code to find out how to do it and then write it all again from scratch...