Softperfect Network Scanner

Softperfect Network Scanner is a portable IP, NetBios and SNMP scanner that runs under all Microsoft operating systems starting with Windows XP all the way up to Windows 10, and all server operating systems starting with Windows Server 2003.

The application is offered as a portable version or installer for Windows, and as a version for Mac OS X systems. You can start the portable version of the application directly after you have extracted the archive it is distributed in.

Update: The most recent version of the program is no longer available as a free version. You can download a trial version that is not time limited but limited to displaying ten devices. The size of the program jumped up to a size of between 4 and 5 Megabytes depending on which version of the application you download.

Softperfect Network Scanner

The program interface is clean, and accepts an IP range at the top. The default is IPv4 but the application supports iPv6 as well. You can enter it manually, or use paste operations instead. You may add more ranges to the scan during setup, and use auto-detection of local IP ranges, external IP addresses and IP ranges as well.

A scan resolves host names, pings the servers, detects MAC addresses, hidden shared folders and write accessible shares.

Some of the options are disabled by default and have to be enabled in the program's options. This is for example the case for MAC address detection and discovery of Open Ports. The ports have to be entered in a comma separated list, by default only port 80 is checked.

The network scanner has been designed to scan local and remote networks. Basically any IP range can be entered and Softperfect Network Scanner will scan it.

The network scanner supports additional features that make it interesting. I can launch third party applications that can be integrated into the software. It does support Wake-On-Lan and Remote Shutdown, can mount and explore network resources and list logged in users.

Closing Words

SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a powerful program for windows and Mac. The trial version is limited in regards to the number of devices that it will display during scans, but otherwise feature complete.

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