scannet365 · lan field notes
Three scanners, tested the boring way — on real home and small-office LANs — and described without the marketing gloss. Pick the one that answers the question you actually have.
reviewed 15 september 2026
Every few months someone asks the same thing: a router light is blinking, the monthly bill looks wrong, or a smart TV stopped working, and the question boils down to what is connected right now. A network scanner answers it in about a minute, and the three tools below cover the whole range of situations — from a free one-file executable to a licensed engineer's suite.
None of them requires you to read a manual first. All of them will also show you things you did not expect, which is either the point or the problem, depending on how well you thought you knew your network.
One file, no install, sweeps a /24 before the kettle boils. The default answer for home networks.
The Windows-office specialist: every computer, every shared folder, and whether that folder should really be writable.
For people who own switches. SNMP discovery that ends in a port map you can hand to the next engineer.
Still unsure? The side-by-side comparison takes about four minutes to read and saves you installing the wrong tool. When you are done sweeping, the inventory routine shows how to keep the results useful next month.
Run a scanner over your subnet — the range your router hands out, usually something like 192.168.0.1–254. A sweeper that also reads ARP will catch gadgets that ignore ping, which covers most phones, TVs and smart plugs.
Not necessarily. Angry IP Scanner has a portable build that runs straight from a folder or USB stick, with no administrator rights and nothing left behind.
Scanning equipment you own or administer is ordinary maintenance everywhere this site's readers are likely to live. The same software pointed at someone else's network is another story — get written permission first, always.
Depth versus width. A port scanner digs into one machine; a network scanner walks the whole street knocking on doors. The tools here are mostly door-knockers, though Angry IP Scanner will tell you which doors are open as it goes.