Nmap scan report for butterfly (192.168.0.16) Even if you only have one to three home computers, what about your routers, cell phones, tablets, and other devices? What might you discover about them? What is discoverable? Let's take a quick look and see.įirst, the quickest nmap scan uses a couple options to tell nmap that you only want a listing of IP addresses.

What would you expect to find if you were to use the tool at home? The results might be far more interesting than you imagine. It's typically used in corporate settings for collecting information on systems and doing security analysis.īut here's an interesting idea. In fact, it's considered a standard security tool and is a free and open-source security scanner.

Originally released in 1997, nmap has since become available for Windows and other Unix variants, as well. Sysadmins have been installing nmap on Linux for more than 20 years.

OS detection - determining the operating system along with some hardware characteristics.

Version detection - identifying applications and their versions.

Port scanning - identifying services that are available for use.

Host discovery - probing by IP address and providing information on the systems that respond.

Nmap makes it easy to detect changes, as well as new systems on the network. It can also help identify rogue systems and vulnerabilities. The tool provides information on the systems and services that are running (i.e., open ports).

Nmap, the 'network mapper,' has long been used on corporate networks to collect information on desktop systems and servers.

Zenmap failed to open device