discovery of sql server instances and testing the instances for collation connection moed etc.

Hi,
    I'm developing installation package for app, it needs to check weather a sql server database exists on local machine and/or local network, what is the full name of the server (weather it is a named or unnamed instance) what version number it is weather it is a mixed mode authentication what collation it is, since I don't necessarily know the sa password I'll need to connect using windows authentication.
     Thanks in advance for any suggestons.