SQL Server discovery: How to find edition of SQL Server without connecting to that instance?

This is an interesting question in the recent times that I have seen in the forums, that how to find such information even without connecting to that SQL instance. There are plenty of ways to get information about SQL instance name using OSQL -L or find about odbc32.dll to get list of SQL names if they are registered. Also the local instance is resolved by registry entry and remote instances are resolved by UDP broadcast (port 1434), using sqlbrowser -c can help some extent to obtain the information....(<a href="http://sqlserver-qa.net/blogs/tools/archive/2010/12/29/sql-server-discovery-how-to-find-edition-of-sql-server-without-connecting-to-that-instance.aspx">read more</a>)<img src="http://sqlserver-qa.net/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9880" width="1" height="1">