Want to code a network mapper

Hi,
I am toying with the idea of making a network mapper/visualizer app as my final year project..

could you please shed some light on what all work needs to be done in order to get and going with the work...

Features that i have thot that it would be having would be -
- listing neighboring machines
- OS detect using basic techniques.. or maybe using methods that nmap uses
- detecting open ports
- guessing possible services, doing banner grabbing etc
- app will also allow parameters to be passed to few external networking utilities

As I said nothing too complicated, have got 2.5 months to work on it ... I am open to learning concepts, reading RFCs etc.. gimme a light please.

Have decided to code in Java, I don't really have any experience coding network apps but since I plan to pursue career in networking/security.. some project work in this field might prove helpful in self learning and personal gains for my post graduation...

CPAN has source code for a Port Scanner in Perl, if you know Perl you could use it as a blue print of sorts for what you'd like to do.

Looks like you are trying to code something like Cheops. Its an opensource tool and has been around for quite sometime. The first thing i'd recommend you to do would be to understand how Cheops works inside out.If you think you know enough Java, you should try reading "Java Network Programming - O'Reilly". Your project is a bit complicated, considering the fact that you are planning to code from a scratch ( or are you?). I'd really not recommend you reading any RFCs right now. They are great, but they tend to be very vast and too arcane for a beginner.

Cheops - http://cheops-ng.sourceforge.net/
Java Network Programming - http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/jnp3/

Best Of Luck :-)