Scanning of computer networks (searching for addresses with known properties) is a practice that is often used by both network administrators and crackers. Although it is widely accepted that activity of the latter is often illegal, most of the time they depend on exactly the same tools that can be used for perfectly legitimate network administration – just like a kitchen knife that can be used maliciously.Thanks to the recent activity of mass-media on the subject (that popularized the wrong term for a cracker – a 'hacker'), nowadays every educated person more or less understands the reasons and goals that stand behind malicious cracking: curiosity, stealing of information, making damage, showing self-importance to the world, etc. But why do administrators need to scan their own networks?
There are plenty of answers: to check status of computers and various network devices (are they up or down), find spare addresses in statically-addressed networks, monitor the usage of server-type or P2P applications, make inventory of available hardware and software, check for recently discovered holes in order to patch them, and much more things that are even difficult to foresee.
Angry IP Scanner is widely-used open-source and multi-platform network scanner. As a rule, almost all such programs are open-source, because they are developed with the collaboration of many people without having any commercial goals. Secure networks are possible only with the help of open-source systems and tools, possibly reviewed by thousands of independent experts and hackers alike.
Certainly, there are other network scanners in existence (especially single-host port scanners), however, most of them are not cross-platform, are too simple and do not offer the same level of extensibility and user-friendliness as Angry IP Scanner. The program's target audience are network administrators, consultants, developers, who all use the tool every day and therefore have advanced requirements for usability, configurability, and extensibility. However, Angry IP Scanner aims to be very friendly to novice users as well.
You can download Angry IP Scanner here:
Angry IP Scanner
