One of the major concerns for companies is the strict policies and regulations. However, this is possible with the proper network reconnaissance. Port scanner tools are most widely used by the programmers and ethical hackers to identify which ports are being used by weather applications.
With the network diagnosis and reconnaissance, you can identify the loopholes and help network managers identify the weak ports that can be breached. It helps identify the live hosts using scanning ports and services.
This can straightway help them identify malicious programs. Furthermore, network managers can even secure firewalls by closing unnecessary ports and services.
Hence, to assess the strength of your organization’s security policies, it is indeed the need of the hour to choose the right port scanner.
Worry not!
In this article, we have shared the list of Best Port Scanner Tools for the Network Administrator that you should try to enhance network security.
Contents
Best Port Scanner Tools & Software To Enhance Security
1. SolarWinds Port Scanner
SolarWinds claim itself to be the #1 port scan tools. It is a free utility tool that scans a number of IP addresses including open, closed, and gives options of limiting scans to a port number range.
The USP of SolarWinds Port scanning tool is its ability to scan bulk network configuration. To begin scanning, you should start by configuring the scan profile.
SolarWinds Port scanner can also be configured to look for the layer 4 posts or the services including UDP ports. It works well with the latest Windows OS including Windows 8, 8.1, 10, Windows Server 2012 R2 and 2016.
Features:
- It has a multi-threading feature that fastens the scan time and creates less overhead.
- You can export the scan reports in various formats including XML, XLSX and CSV.
- SolarWinds stores your IANA port name in separate files to make it more editable.
- Using the command-line interface, the scan profiles can be configured in a single window.
- User has the flexibility to pause, resume or cancel the scans anytime.
- To reduce the scan time, SolarWinds has advanced adaptive timing behaviour.
Pricing: 100% Free and ready to download.
2. Advanced IP Scanner
Advanced IP Scanner is the most preferred port scanner for Windows. In fact, it is one of the easiest and most robust network tools for Windows operators. It is completely open-source and free to use and compatible with the most latest version of the Windows.
Advanced IP Scanner lists the networks considering the factors such as IP address, Port, OS and Manufacturer. For the Mac systems, it lists the MAC address.
One of the most intriguing features of Advanced IP Scanner is that it detects the RDPs or Radmin ports. This helps you manage the device remotely. Furthermore, the scan finds all the targeted scans in a matter of seconds with easy access to these resources.
Features:
- It exports all the scan results in a CSV file format.
- It also enables the users to switch computers on and off remotely.
- With Advanced IP Scanner, users can even detect the MAC addresses.
- This port scan tool also gives easy access to the shared folders through your network.
- Lastly, Advanced IP Scanner gives remote control via the remote desktop protocol.
Pricing: Completely free to use and no installation required.
3. Angry IP Scanner
Angry IP Scanner is an open-source and free port scanner tool that is easy to install. It is an effective tool in scanning the Internet and local network.
Similar to Advanced IP scanner, it doesn’t require any installation works with Windows, Mac and Linux effectively. Angry IP scanner also pings the target network that confirms if exists.
It uses certain plugins that can extend the amount of scans and information received about each target. It works on all operating system such as Windows, Mac and Linux.
Further, the software is extremely light and the installation is not required in such a case.
Features:
- It scans and exports the results in various formats such as CSV, TXT, XML and IP-Port list files.
- It scans the local networks and also the file formats of any type.
- AngryIP uses the multi-threading approach to fasten the scan and reduce the timing.
- With the command-line interface, the scan profiles are configured in a single-window interface.
- It has multiple fetchers such as Ping, Host-Name and ports. The fetchers can be further extended using the various plugins.
Pricing: AngryIP Scanner is completely free to use. All you need is to register and start scanning the network ports.
4. Nmap
Nmap is regarded as one of the best port scanning tools for the pen-testers. Among hackers, Nmap is one of the most popular port scanners. It is also called as the Network Mapper scanning tool.
This open-source tool also offers enhanced flexibility and power for the network reconnaissance against any type of target.
Though Nmap is a little bit complicated for the beginners, there are still a lot of features to try out in this port scanner software.
Nmap works by creating the maps and crafts them into packets sending them to specific targets and analyse the response.
It supports a number of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Free BSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, Sun OS, Amiga and more.
Features:
- Nmap uses a unique programming language called Lua programming language that interacts with the target by using these scripts.
- It has the ability to scan a huge system of networks that comprise thousands of machines.
- During scanning, Nmap also identifies the hardware characteristic and operating system of the networks.
- Users can choose to scan target selection; single IP, host-name and resource files.
- Lastly, it scans various ports such as UDP and TCP ports.
Pricing: 100% Free and Open-source
5. NetCat
Netcat isn’t just an IP scanner, but more than that. This network analyzer tool consists of various features for secured network scanning and identifying the open ports.
This tool is so tiny yet so powerful. This tool is most specifically used for network debugging and investigation purposes. NetCat can open the UCP or TDP connections between any two devices over any port.
Moreover, it can establish the connection on any device and writes and read data from the network using the UCP connections.
With Netcat, you can perform various tasks such as debugging, service banner grabbing, port scanning and forwarding and redirecting the network traffic.
Features:
- Netcat lets you connect to any remote system through ports or devices.
- It also provides safe tunnelling using the tunnelling mode from UCP to TDP. Using the specific parameters, it creates Tunnel using network parameters like source port/interface, listening port/interface and the remote host.
- It also provides outbound and inbound support with UCP and TDP ports.
- It also provides ability such as DNS forwarding and reverse checking as well.
- Lastly, it has the ability to use any source port or locally configured network source address.
Pricing: Completely free to use.
6. LanSweeper IP Scanner
It is considered as one of the most versatile network or port scanning software tools of all time. This IT management tool scans the networks and finds the assets.
Here, IPScanner comes integrated with the LanSweeper tool. This also means that you can target specific IP or various IPs giving out the full list of computers, servers, ports, switches, routers and printers.
One of the reasons to love LanSweeperis that it deploys various scripts and commands to various devices at the same time.
Besides the scanning, the software also specialises in deep scanning, active debugging and fix them within seconds. Furthermore, it gives out the list of available ports and gives detailed scanning information about various applications.
Features:
- It scans a wide range of IP addresses on-demand or automatically.
- The free version lets you find information on about 100 devices.
- After scanning, LanSweeper IP Scanner executes various actions such as remote shutdown, and Wake-On LAN.
- Users can choose to exclude specific IP addresses.
Pricing: It offers a free plan for up to 100 devices and a subscription of $495/year for up to 500 devices. If you have more than 5000 devices, you can get the pricing on request.
7. MyLanViewer Network
MyLanViewer Network is one of the most versatile networks IP scanner for Windows. It gives you complete control over the network by performing the tasks tailor-made for port scanning.
This tool has the ability to scan various target networks at the same point which shows a list of networks with IP, MAC addresses, NIC vendor, OS Version, logged users, and shared folders of the wired and wireless devices found an easy-to-read list.
It remotely monitors the network devices (open or hidden) and notifies the user if a new device is found. One of the port scan software that works on various Windows version including Vista, XP, 2003 and version 8.
Features:
- It allows the NetBIOS scanner feature that scans the networks through local networks.
- Besides this, it also performs certain remote actions including reboot, sleeps, hibernates and Wake On LAN.
- MyLanViewer scans and finds all the IP addresses, Mac address and shared files which are available on the wired or wireless network.
- It also specialises in various tasks such as terminating the user sessions and disabling the shared folders.
Pricing: MyLanViewer Network is readily available and free to download.
8. Slitheris Network Discovery
Slitheris Network Discovery is a premium port scanner that comes with a free plan for up to 50 network devices.
Originated by Komodo laboratories, this tool is made specifically for the Windows users.
Slitheris Network Discovery uses a versatile way of scanning that no other port scanners do. It gathers all the information from the network devices without needing any agents.
It finds the hidden devices using the ARP pings and also discovers all kinds of pings with its multi-threading technology. It has a portable version that does not require installation.
Features:
- Slitehris uses the advanced algorithm to find the age of the device. It finds out the year of manufacture of the device.
- It identified the type of device by using various information and attribute. Finally, it compares them to device type database.
- Some hidden devices might be unresponsive to pings. Well, you can use ARP cache to identify these devices.
- Slitheris can determine the type of devices; be it Printer, Virtual Machine, Mobile, Server, Workstation, etc.
Pricing: Slitheris is a free software for small network organizations. It can scan up to 50 devices in free plan. For the premium license, it costs $195 for up to 256 devices, $295 for up to 1000 devices and $395 for unlimited devices.
9. Free IP Scanner by Eusing
It is one of the fastest IP and port scanners for the network administrators and general users to help monitor the networks.
Eusing comes with a multi-threading feature that scans thousands of devices wishing seconds.
Eusing scans and pings each of the networks individually and resolves each of them using the hostnames or scan ports. These scan results can be exported to the .txt files and used for future purposes.
However, this port scanner tool supports only WindowsOS.
Features:
- It is simple, easy to use and portable port scanning tool.
- Its fast scanning capabilities using the multi-threads can reduce time and cut efforts.
- Eusing software has the ability to scan multiple targets per second without using any resources.
Pricing: Completely free to download.
10. Manage Engine OpUtils
Manage Engine is a complete package of network security managers. It includes a plethora of features and tools including IP address manager, a switch port mapper, and a port scanner.
The search engine scan works along with various subnets, routers and also on various switch ports. Furthermore, the system detects and troubleshoots any network issues.
Features:
- Using the scheduled scans, users can automate network scanning and port scans.
- The software also helps streamline the network scanning that detects the rogue devices in its network.
- You can also conduct the network audits that generates diverse network reports.
- ManageEngine also integrates seamlessly with various network minutes so that the scan can be performed within minutes.
- It has a MAC address resolver to find certain Mac address of the IP address.
Pricing: ManageEngine offers a 30-day free trial. It has a premium license for the Windows and Linux users.
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Wrapping Up
Port scanning tools are vital for the network administrators that scans the organizations’ networks. It can be a vital addition to your system security.
There are various free scanners and ports available online. Considering various features, effectiveness, pricing and portability, we have listed the best port scanner tools in the business.
In case, we have missed any software, do let us know in the comments.
