Have you scrutinized your network infrastructure lately? Between bring-your-own-device policies, remote workers, Internet of Things creep, and cloud sprawl, keeping track of every phone, laptop, printer and IP camera on your network is no easy task.
But maintaining eyes on all devices within your environment has become a cybersecurity and compliance imperative in today‘s technology landscape.
That‘s why having a foolproof network scanning solution like Advanced IP Scanner is so invaluable. This insider‘s guide will demonstrate how Advanced IP Scanner serves as an indispensable asset mapping and administration tool for savvy IT teams.
The Growing Network Visibility Crisis
Let‘s briefly underline why solutions like Advanced IP Scanner have become so critical in the first place:
1. IP Address Scarcity Intensifies
IPv4 exhaustion continues squeezing IT admins for available addressing slots. The world literally ran out of fresh IPv4 allocations in 2011.
While IPv6 adoption slowly ramps up, over 90% of networks still rely on outdated IPv4 infrastructure. And upgrading takes considerable coordination when you have hundreds or thousands of devices in play.
Careful IP address planning is essential even if your organization uses DHCP instead of static IPs. Because behind the scenes, DHCP pulls from the same limited scope as defined by your network prefix.
2. Management Headaches Skyrocket
Alongside addressing limitations, the number of connected devices have exploded:
- There will be over 75 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025 per IDC projections.
- Average number of endpoints per company now totals 1,800+ according to Spiceworks Ziff Davis polling.
Additionally, up to 41% of enterprise endpoints fall outside IT administration purview thanks to bring your own device (BYOD) policies allowing personal gadgets to access corporate networks.
The downstream effect? Suboptimal network performance, bottlenecks, compliance failures, and vulnerable attack surfaces.
3. The Risks Rise Across Industries
Although IT teams have an intrinsic interest monitoring hardware, other departments stand to gain as well:
- Executives require device inventories for audits and regulatory compliance
- Finance needs to track technology assets across locations
- Security aims to lockdown unrecognized endpoints accessing networks
While no solution serves as a panacea, Advanced IP Scanner makes reinforcing network visibility basics more accessible.
Capabilities Overview
Before diving deeper, let‘s outline Advanced IP Scanner‘s core capabilities:
Asset discovery – Automatically map hardware across wired and wireless networks in seconds
Topology visualization – See live network device interconnections in a single view
Data export – Document IP lists as CSV reports for offline processing and external systems
Remote access – Integrated remote desktop and system administration tools
Continuous scanning – Refresh scans every 90 seconds for monitoring infrastructure changes
Now let‘s explore the distinct advantages Advanced IP Scanner holds over alternatives.
Key Benefits Compared
I‘ve evaluated nearly every well-known network scanner on the market in my role managing IT infrastructure strategy for enterprise companies. Here‘s how Advanced IP Scanner stands apart from a features perspective:
| Advanced IP Scanner | Angry IP Scanner | SolarWinds Engineer‘s Toolset | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free | Paid – $1,575+ |
| Asset Tracking | √ | √ | √ |
| Network Topology Maps | √ | X | √ |
| Data Export Formats | CSV, HTML, XML | TXT, CSV, XML | PDF, XLS |
| Remote Desktop Features | √ | X | √ |
With built-in Radmin integration for remote system administration, Advanced IP Scanner does double duty for both discovery and management.
The darker side? Lacking native reporting, dashboard charts, and configuration management capabilities that commercial platforms boast. But those shortcomings barely detract given Advanced IP Scanner‘s purpose-driven design.
Now let‘s walk through getting started guides tailored by use case.
Getting Started – For Small Business Networks
If you oversee technology for a small or medium-sized company, quick network scanning helps simplify IP address management and hardware oversight.
Here are best practices I recommend based on real-world experience:
1. Define Your Network Range
Determine the subnet you want to scan such as 192.168.1.X or 10.0.0.X. This establishes the boundaries Advanced IP Scanner will sweep.
Identifying used versus available IP segments also aids smart address assignment planning as your infrastructure scales.
2. Schedule Regular Scans
Set up regular monthly or quarterly routine network scans. This helps baseline hardware changes over time for projection models.
Export results into CSV lists to build historical tracking records. Compared against previous snapshots, you can calculate growth trajectories.
Here‘s a network device growth table using quarterly scans as an example model:
| Date | Q1 2023 | Q2 2023 | Q3 2023 | Q4 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devices Detected | 53 | 68 ↑28% | 83 ↑22% | 96 ↑15% |
Ideally, scan outside business hours if concerned about performance impact.
3. Detect Rogue Devices
Scan different subnets and VLANs outside your sanctioned ranges to uncover rogue personal gadgets or IoT gear connecting to corporate wireless access points:
- Home Smart speakers (192.168.100.x)
- Roku devices (10.10.50.x)
- BYOD phones (172.30.x.x)
Such intrusions masquerade for internet access but pose data leakage or botnet threats when trusts are abused.
4. Troubleshoot With Import Filters
Leverage Saved Scan snapshots of problem periods then apply hostname filters to isolate misbehaving devices.
Once identified, inspect hardware individually using Remote Desktop for configurations checks or software diagnostics.
Getting Started – For Enterprise Teams
Larger technology teams juggle exponentially bigger networks. Advanced IP Scanner simplifies a breadth of critical tasks in this environment:
1. Asset Inventory Audits
Many regulations like HIPAA, SOX, and PCI DSS require maintaining asset inventories with hardware details across physical locations.
But spreadsheets and manual processes don‘t cut it when tracking thousands of devices. This is where centralized scanning reports come in handy.
Schedule monthly scans across sites then compile Device Name, IP, MAC, Network Adapter metadata for append into master lists. These satisfy due diligence requirements during audits.
2. IP Address Space Planning
To aid IP subnetting and segmentation planning, leverage Advanced IP Scanner‘s rediscovery capabilities:
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Perform scans of existing production ranges like 172.[SITEID].x.x
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Evaluate current consumption by converting IPs used to prefix sizing via cidr calculators
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Determine remaining capacity based on discovered subnets versus total assigned prefixes
This methodology helps identify sites needing expanded allocation. Alternatively, it may reveal overprovisioned ranges to reclaim addresses from.
3. Security Forensics
Advanced IP Scanner empowers incident response tactics in cases of suspected network breach or malware detection:
- Establish forensic baselines – record known good scans of infrastructure pre-intrusion
- Scan during infections to pinpoint unrecognized, potentially compromised devices
- Scan after remediation to validate eradication across hardware
Comparing scan reports before/during/after security events speeds investigation and remediation.
Additional Usage Tips
Beyond basic network scanning, Advanced IP Scanner contains advanced features for power users:
Continuously Monitor Infrastructure
Enable the "Continuous scanning" option under Settings to refresh network device listings automatically every 90 seconds. This ensures detection of devices coming online or dropping off the network instantly.
Helpful for tracking office equipment uptime, surveillance on remote computers, or monitoring infrastructure health. Saves manually re-running scans.
Manage Devices Remotely
Right click any device from Advanced IP Scanner‘s host list to access the Tools menu. Options here allow powering systems on/off, joining them to domains, transferring files or initiating remote desktop.
Fantastic supplement to dedicated RMM platforms in allowing ad-hoc administration access without tracking down credentials.
Discover Beyond Local Networks
Take network visibility past your local subnet by expanding Advanced IP Scanner‘s scan scope under Settings:
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Wider LAN segments – Scan DHCP ranges like 192.168.X.X to find all devices sharing that network infrastructure
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Entire VLANs – Specify the VLAN ID alongside the target subnet to sweep all ports under the virtual network
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VPN ranges – Common corporate VPN networks exist in the private 10.8.0.0/24 or 192.168.0.0/16 ranges.
Use filters when scanning wider ranges to isolate device classes from troves of results for sanity.
Diagnose Slow Networks Throughput
Pinpoint bandwidth bottlenecks by cross referencing Advanced IP Scanner‘s MAC vendor listings against detected traffic volumes:
- Use traffic flow analyzers to determine top talkers by volume
- Match high utilization MAC addresses to Device Manufacturers
- Identify underpowered hardware needing upgrade
Closing Recommendations
After utilizing Advanced IP Scanner across SMBs and large enterprises alike, I firmly endorse Advanced IP Scanner for:
SMB IT admins – Cost-effective network visibility and administration supplement that pays dividends avoiding IP conflicts or oversight gaps harming reliability
MSPs – Streamline client network asset tracking without added software burden. Faster troubleshooting with instant remote access to endpoints.
Network engineers – Granular traffic profiling when diagnosing performance issues by interfacing discovered hardware metadata with flow records and switch managers.
CISOs – Rapid forensic analysis and device inventory audits assisting incident response and regulatory compliance.
Of course, for those overseeing massive networks, purpose-built platforms like SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper (linked below) provide expanded features. But they demand more significant resource overhead and pricing commitments.
For符a majority of companies, Advanced IP Scanner strikes the right balance of power, efficiency, and ease of use as a network administration force multiplier. The tool manages to pull an incredible depth of insights from simple scanning methods and interface simplicity.
