Nmap

Ever wondered what devices are connected to your network? Are you sometimes curious about who's accessing your Wi-Fi? Nmap lets you see all gadgets that are connected to your network, thus helping you keep a close eye on your security.

While it doesn’t require installation, and you can start using it right away, the program is console-based, so you do have to know your ways around commands. If this is not an impediment, then you will have a powerful tool at your fingertips to scan and map networks of all sizes, including ones that feature hundreds of devices.

To do so, the app sends packets over the network to determine which computers, and other devices, are online. Besides the actual machines, the app can also help you figure out what programs they’re running along with their versions, so if there are running apps with known vulnerabilities, you can alert your users to update or downgrade.

The app also checks the operating system running on the devices and whether all security barriers, like antiviruses or firewalls, for instance are running their latest versions.

The application is quite flexible when it comes to scanning and can work to most of the types of network structures out there. Moreover, it is designed to bypass of sorts of barriers, including IP filters, firewalls or routers, to effectively scan and analyze networks.

This can be achieved through various techniques, such as port scanning for both TCP and UDP, detecting the versions of operating system and programs, ping sweeping, so on and so forth.

With its flexible features, ease of use, and ability to overcome network obstacles, Nmap remains a top choice for network administrators, professionals and advanced users who want to manage their network better alike.