Hey, all. I'm trying to write a program that can 'peek' at the network neighborhood and tell me if a certain computer (its NetBIOS name, I mean) is showing up on the network. In other words, is the thing up and running?

I've thought of two methods. One is to do what I said -- scan the list periodically, refreshing as necessary.

The other is to map a drive to that computer's hard drive, and just see if the program can access the drive.

Which would be easier? I have two considerations:

The computer that would be scanning is on a different network than the one it would be looking for. That is, this computer is a 192.* computer, the other is a 10.*. That's why I think it might be easier to map a drive...

If I map a drive, though, how do I get it to not time out and crash this computer in case it can't access it?

Any ideas?