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The toolbox of any network administrator must include a network scanner to help them find open ports and manage possible vulnerabilities in an efficient manner. One of the many cost-free applications out there that retrieve information about available ports is SolarWinds Port Scanner.

With a simple interface and simple options, SolarWinds Port Scanner can analyze a range of IP addresses or hostnames of your choice to detect open and closed ports on network computers. It uses Npcap to do its job, which is automatically installed if not already present on your computer.

The main interface displays all the data, with no additional menus and windows. To begin with, you must configure the scan profile. You should start by entering ranges of individual IP addresses or hostnames, separated by comma. In a similar way, you can tamper with the range of ports to scan.

More experienced users will be happy to find out that there are a few advanced options they can configure. SolarWinds Port Scanner can be instructed to look for TCP ports, UDP ports, or both. Moreover, the application can first send a ping request and proceed only in case the target host responds.

Additional options enable the application to resolve the hostname and optionally use a specific DNS server, rather than the local machine settings. It can retrieve the MAC address and detect the operating system version.

Once the analysis is complete, SolarWinds Port Scanner reveals all the hosts and data regarding open, closed, and filtered ports. Clicking on an IP address reveals the port number and type, as well as the application that is using it. With a single click, you can perform nslookup or traceroute the selected host. Additional custom actions are also possible.

Allowing a fast scan of network devices, SolarWinds Port Scanner helps you discover open ports and access found resources. The GUI looks good, and all the panels are well-organized but, unfortunately, it is not fully resizable, which might annoy you.