Port Scanners are an important tool when you want to investigate any remote or local network for security considerations. Used by programmers and network administrators, these port scanners are used to mainly know what ports are being used by what applications, so you can identify malicious programs right away.
These port scanners can also be used to assess the strength of your security policies.
Due to their usefulness, there are many port scanner applications available today. But all are not created the same. To help you navigate through this world of port scanners, we present to you some of the best ones that come with a host of features.
Here’s the Top Port Scanners for Scanning Open Ports/Service:
Here are a few port scanners that we think perform well and make your job easy. They come with a ton of features designed to reduce the time and effort needed in scanning every port within your network.
- SolarWinds Port Scanner
- Advanced IP Scanner
- Angry IP Scanner
- Nmap
- NetCat
- LanSweeper IP Scanner
- MyLanViewer Network/IP Scanner
- Slitheris Network Discovery
Let’s take a detailed look into the features, pricing and download options for each of these tools and where to download them!
1. SolarWinds Port Scanner
SolarWinds Port Scanner is a tool from one of the best companies in the world of monitoring- SolarWinds. This tool generates a list of open, closed and filtered ports for each IP address.
Features
The features of SolarWinds Port Scanner are:
- Shortens the scan run time by using advanced adaptive timing behavior.
- Saves scan configurations into a scan profile. This means, all that you have to do is load the respective scan profile without worrying about changing the configuration settings.
- Allows you to write a batch script that can be executed at a scheduled time and date.
- Supports troubleshooting through the command line interface.
- Gives the option to define a DNS server of your choice.
- Resolves hostnames using the default local machine DNS settings.
- Exports the scanned results to various formats such as XML, XLSX and CSV.
- Allows you to pause, resume or cancel scans at any time.
- Determines the operating system while scanning.
- Stores IANA port name definitions in a separate file, so they can be edited at any time.
- Works well on Windows 8, 8.1, 10, Windows Server 2012 R2 and 2016.
Pricing
100% Free
Download
You can download Solarwinds Port Scanner from https://www.solarwinds.com/free-tools/port-scanner/registration
2. Advanced IP Scanner
Advanced IP Scanner is a reliable network scanning tool best used for analyzing LAN. It is easy to use and even runs as a portable edition.
Features
Here is a look at the features of Advanced IP Scanner.
- Gives easy access to shared folders through the network.
- Allows you to remotely control the tool via RDP and Radmin.
- Automatically detects MAC addresses.
- Enables you to switch computers on or off remotely.
- Exports scan results to CSV files
- Requires no installation at all.
Pricing
Free to use
Download
Download Advanced IP Scanner from https://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/download/Advanced_IP_Scanner_2.5.3646.exe
3. Angry IP Scanner
Angry IP Scanner is an open-source and cross platform network scanner that is fast and simple to use.
Features
The features of Angry IP Scanner includes the following.
- Exports the scan results into many formats such as CSV, TXT, XML and IP-Port list files.
- Requires no installation at all
- Scans local network, IP address ranges, ports and even files of any format.
- Allows you to extend the functionality of this application with many fetchers.
- Comes with a command line interface.
- Starts by pinging each IP address, and then determines the MAC address and scans ports.
- Works on Mac, Windows and Linux
- Uses a multithreaded approach, in which a scanning thread is created for each scanned IP address.
Pricing
Free.
Download
Download Angry IP Scanner from https://angryip.org/download/
4. Nmap
Nmap is a free and open-source scanner that discovers devices on a network and builds a comprehensive “map” of the same. To do this, it sends special packets to targets and analyzes the response.
Features
The features of Nmap are:
- Identifies hosts on a network.
- Lists the open ports on target hosts.
- Checks network services on remote devices to determine the version number in applications.
- Determines the operating system and hardware characteristics of network devices.
- Interacts with the target by way of script using Nmap Scripting Engine and Lua programming language.
- Supports many techniques for mapping devices.
- Scans both UDP and TCP ports.
- Has the ability to scan huge networks comprising of tens of thousands of machines.
- Supports most well-known operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Free BSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, Sun OS, Amiga and more.
Pricing
100% Free
Download
It can be downloaded at https://nmap.org/download.html
5. NetCat
Netcat is a networking utility that reads and writes data across different connections using the TCP/IP protocol.
Features
The features of NetCat are as follows.
- Provides access to outbound and inbound connections and TCP and UDP ports.
- Comes with a tunneling mode to allow special tunneling such as UDP to TCP.
- Supports built-in port scanning capabilities
- Has advanced usage options such as buffered send mode and hexdump.
- Gives optional RFC854 telnet codes for parsing and responding.
- Provides full DNS forwarding and reverse checking with appropriate warnings.
- Has the ability to use any local source port or locally configured network source address.
- Reads command line arguments from standard input
Pricing
Free to use.
Download
Please download NetCat from http://netcat.sourceforge.net/download.php
6. LanSweeper IP Scanner
LanSweeper IP Scanner is a free IP scanner that uses the available ports to gather and present detailed information about different applications.
Features
The features of LanSweeper IP Scanner are:
- Comes with a user-friendly interface.
- Gathers relevant network information through WMI, SNMP, SSH, FTP, HTTP and other protocols.
- Discovers scanned devices by IP address
- Executes custom actions such as remote shutdown, Wake-On LAN and more.
- Scans IP ranges automatically or on demand
- Re-discovers an entire subnet with just one click.
- Imports your entire network setup through a CSV files
- Excludes devices from scanning based on their IP address.
Pricing
Free for up to 100 devices and $495 per year for up to 500 devices. For more than 500 devices, contact the support team for a quote.
Download
You can download this tool from https://www.lansweeper.com/download
7. MyLanViewer Network/IP Scanner
MyLanViewer Network/IP Scanner is a powerful NetBIOS and LAN/Network IP scanner for Windows, and also performs a ton of other functionalities required to have a complete control over your network.
Features
The features of MyLanViewer Network/IP Scanner are as follows.
- Performs remote actions such as remote shutdown, reboot, sleep, hibernate and Wake On LAN (WOL).
- Helps you find all IP addresses, MAC addresses and shared folders on any wired or wireless network.
- Monitors IP addresses and shows the state of computers when they change.
- Does a variety of tasks such as terminates user sessions, disables shared folders, detects rogue DHCP servers, shows netstat information and more.
- Monitors all devices, including hidden ones, on your subnet.
- Comes with a user-friendly interface.
- Works well on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7 and 8.
Pricing
Free to use.
Download
You can download MyLanViewer IP Scanner from http://www.mylanviewer.com/MyLanViewer-setup.exe
8. Slitheris Network Discovery
Slitheris Network Discovery is a premium agentless network scanner that helps to identify and scan different devices on a network.
Features
Features of Slitheris Network Discovery include,
- Collects information from devices without a need for credentials or agents.
- Offers a ton of information about each device/application
- Identifies the type of device by gathering dozens of attributes about every device and compares them to a device type definition database.
- Uses advanced algorithms to determine the year in which a device was manufactured.
- Determines if SMBv1 or SMBv2 is enabled, and if so, gives the choice to disable SMBv1 for security reasons.
- Uses ARP cache to identify hidden devices that are unresponsive to pings.
- Allows you to see the devices that have a GUI and gives you instant access to the same on your browser.
- A portable version is available.
Pricing
Free for up to 50 devices, $195 for up to 256 devices, $295 for up to 1000 devices and $395 for unlimited devices.
Download
You can download Slitheris from http://www.komodolabs.com/downloads/slitheris_installer.exe
Conclusion
In short, port scanners are a vital tool for network administrators as they help to gather information about devices, so as to understand the working of these devices, their security and so much more.
They assist in identifying open ports and possibly vulnerable systems that could potentially allow intursions in your perimeter and cause potential leaks into your infrastructure.
We highly suggest you grab one of the downloads from above and give them a spin in your network. Some programs have nice Interfaces that allow for easy scanning and others have more complicated and advanced command line tools that accept advanced operators and more!
We hope the above information helps you to zero-in on the right port scanner for your network.
