List of the top Advanced Online Port Scanners for Windows and Mac Systems with Detailed Feature Comparison:

Port Scanner is an application that is used to determine the open ports on the network. Port scanning is performed to get information about open ports that are ready to receive information.

Port Scanners are used by programmers, system & network administrators, developers, or by general users. It is used for scanning of own network for finding vulnerabilities before the hackers can find it.

Fact Check: Port scanning is performed by network administrators for network security and network mapping. Hackers also use this Port Scanning process to find the open ports so that they can take advantage of it. Use of port scanners by hackers with malicious intent cannot be directly called as illegal until a hacker performs some illegal act.

Port Scanners are used for testing network security. It can detect the presence of security devices like firewalls etc. Port Scanning can be performed using several methods. Generally, the port scanning process makes use of TCP and UDP protocols.

Five basic Port Scanning techniques are described in the image below.

What You Will Learn

• Port Scanning Process
• List Of The Best Online Port Scanners
  • Comparison Of Top Port Scanning Tools
  • #1) SolarWinds Port Scanner
  • #2) Nmap
  • #3) Advanced Port Scanner
  • #4) Angry IP Scanner
  • #5) NetCat
  • #6) Unicornscan
  • #7) MiTeC Scanner
  • Online Port Scanners
• Conclusion

Port Scanning Process

Port Scanning is a five-step process as described below.

• Step1: For port scanning, there is a need for active hosts. Active hosts can be discovered using the network scanning process.
• Step2: These active hosts are mapped to their IP addresses.
• Step3: Now we have active hosts and thus port scanning process is performed. In this process, packets are sent to specific ports on a host.
• Step4: Here responses will get analyzed.
• Step5: Through this analysis, information about running services will be learned and potential vulnerabilities will be identified.

Port Scanners can connect to a wide range of ports or IP addresses on a network. It can also connect a single IP address or a specific list of ports and IP addresses. Different levels of port scanning include Basic Port Scan, TCP Connect, Strobe Scan, Stealth Scan, etc. It can perform many other different types of scan.

There are two categories of port scan techniques i.e.Single source port scan and distributed port scan.

The categories of Port Scan Techniques are illustrated in the below image.

Pro Tip: While performing port scanning, or before you use a port scanner, decide the range of network that you want to scan (Single IP address or a set of ports and IP addresses). After that, the port scanner should be configured to the depth as per your requirement.

List Of The Best Online Port Scanners

Given below is a list of the most popular Port Scanners that are being used worldwide.

Comparison Of Top Port Scanning Tools

Port Scanners	Best for	Platform	Features	Price
SolarWinds Port Scanner	Small to large businesses.	Windows, Mac, Linux.	Identifying network vulnerabilities, Reduced Scan time through multi-threading, Track user and endpoint device connection activity, Define a DNS server of your choice.	Free trial for 30 days. Network Manager Price starts at $2995.
Advanced Port Scanner	—	Windows	Fast scanning of devices, Identification of Programs, and Remote access, etc.	Free
Angry IP Scanner	Network administrators, Small & large businesses, Banks, and Government agencies.	Windows, Mac, Linux.	Export results in any format, Extensible with data fetcher, Fast & simple to use.	Free
MiTeC	System administrators and General users.	Windows	Functions for Ping Sweep, Resource Sharing, Auto-detection of a local IP range, & Exporting result in CSV format.	Free
Nmap	System administrators, Network engineers, and developers.	Windows, Mac, Linux.	Scanning & Discovery of open ports on a specific network, Discover potential hosts, detect OS name & version, Identify running apps & version.	Free

Let’s Explore!!

#1) SolarWinds Port Scanner

Price: SolarWinds provides a Port Scanner for free. Network Manager Price starts at $2995. A free trial is available for 30 days.

SolarWinds Port Scanner is a completely free tool. It identifies network vulnerabilities by scanning the available IP addresses and their corresponding TCP and UDP ports. SolarWinds also provides a Network Configuration manager. It is a commercial tool.

Features:

• It has reduced the scan time with the help of multi-threading.
• It will allow you to run a scan from the command line.
• Facility to define a DNS server of your choice.
• It has the functionality to track user and endpoint device connection activity.
• It provides a facility to view and edit IANA port name definitions.

Verdict: SolarWinds Port Scanner is a free tool for identifying network vulnerabilities. For each scanned IP address, Post Scanner can generate a list of open, closed, and filtered ports.

=> Download Free

---

#2) NMap

Best for system administrators, network engineers, and developers.
Price: Free Port Scanner

NMap is the acronym for Network Mapper. It is one of the top tools for port scanning and network discovery. This free and open-source tool is useful for system administrators, DevOps, and network engineers. The tool helps them in security auditing on local and remote networks. It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.

Features:

• It can scan and discover open ports on specific networks.
• It discovers potential hosts.
• It detects the OS name and version with the network details.
• It can identify the running apps and their version.

Verdict: NMap is a network security and security auditing tool. It can also be used for network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime.

Website: NMap

#3) Advanced Port Scanner

Price: Free

Advanced Port Scanner is a free port scanner that can perform free scanning of network devices. It supports windows platform.

Features:

• For detected ports, it can identify running programs.
• It has features for remote access and running commands on a remote computer.
• It performs fast multithreaded port scanning.
• It can perform Wake-On-LAN and remote PC shutdown

Verdict: Advanced Port Scanner is a free tool for fast scanning of network devices. It has features like running commands on a remote computer, etc.

Website: Advanced Port Scanner

#4) Angry IP Scanner

Best for network administrators, small & large businesses, banks, and government agencies.
Price: Free and Open source.

Angry IP Scanner is a network scanner that can scan the local network and the Internet. It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. It is a free and open-source platform and doesn’t require any installation.

Features:

• It will allow you to export results in any format.
• The tool is extensible with the help of various data fetchers.
• It has a command-line interface.
• It is fast and simple to use.

Verdict: Angry IP Scanner is a free tool for network scanning that supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can be integrated with Java through the plugin. It also has features for webserver and NetBIOS detection.

Website: Angry IP Scanner

#5) NetCat

Price: Free.

NetCat is a backend tool. It makes use of a TCP/IP connection to read or write data across network connections. It can be a network debugging as well as an exploration tool as it can create any kind of connection based on your requirements.

Features:

• Outbound & Inbound connections are accessible to and from any ports.
• TCP or UDP is accessible from any ports.
• It provides a tunneling mode.
• It has built-in port scanning capabilities with randomizer.
• It has advanced usage options like buffered send-mode and hexdump.

Verdict: NetCat is a reliable tool for direct use as well as for use by other programs or scripts. It provides much more built-in capabilities. It supports Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and Mac OS.

Website: NetCat

#6) Unicornscan

Best for security research members and testing communities.
Price: Free.

Unicornscan can scan TCP and UDP. It can find uncommon network discovery patterns that will help get more details about remote OS and services.

Features:

• It can perform asynchronous stateless TCP scanning.
• It performs asynchronous UDP scanning.
• It has an IP port scanner and can perform service detection.
• It can detect the OS of remote systems.
• It will allow you to enable multiple modules through the command-line.

Verdict: Unicornscan is a free tool with several features including asynchronous TCP and UDP scanning capabilities.

Website: Unicornscan

#7) MiTeC Scanner

Best for System administrators and general users.
Price: Free.

MiTeC is a multi-threaded tool. It is a network scanner with advanced features for the scanning of ICMP, Port, IP, NetBIOS, ActiveDirectory, and SNMP. It provides several scan features like IP Address, Mac Address, running processes, remote device date and time, logged user, etc.

Features:

• MiTeC has functionalities for Ping Sweep and scans for the opened TCP and UDP ports.
• It has features for resource sharing.
• It can detect the available interfaces for the SNMP capable devices.
• The tool can display the basic properties of these devices.
• It will allow you to export the results in CSV format.
• Auto-detection of your local IP range.

Verdict: MiTeC Scanner is a freeware program with several scan features like logged users, shared resources, OS, System Time and UpTime, etc.

Website: MiTeC Scanner

Online Port Scanners

#8) WhatIsMyIP:

WhatIsMyIP provides IPv4 Address, IPv6 Address, and IP Address Lookup. It can help you with hiding IP, changing IP, IP WHOIS, testing Internet Speed, tracing an email, etc. For port scanning, it offers packages like Basic, Web Scan, Games, and Malicious.

Website: WhatIsMyIP

#9) Pentest-Tools.com:

This tool will help you in discovering the vulnerabilities in websites. It can be used by Penetration testers, system administrators, web developers, and business owners. It provides a UDP port scan and Network Scan OpenVAS. The tool can find open TCP ports. It can detect the service version and OS. It makes use of NMap for discovery.

Website: Pentest-Tools.com

#10) HideMy.name:

HideMy.name is a free web proxy and privacy tool. It supports Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android platforms. It has three pricing plans i.e. $8 per month, $2.75 per month, and $3.33 per month. It has features like unlimited bandwidth and money-back guarantee.

It provides an online port scanner. It can find open ports on the computer. It performs verification through the NMap scanner.

Website: HideMy.name

#11) IPVoid:

It provides the tools for IP Address with which you can find details about IP addresses like IP Backlist check, WHOIS lookup, IP Geolocation, and IP to Google Maps. It provides an online port checker to check open ports on your computer. It can be used to check if any ports are blocked by ISP. It can also be used to check firewall software.

Website: IPVoid

#12) WhatsmyIP.org:

WhatsmyIP.org has tools for IP address, port scanners, WHOIS, Geo Location, etc. It provides a port scanner for Server Port Test, Game Port Test, P2P port test, and Application Port Test.

Website: WhatsmyIP.org

Conclusion

As we have seen most of the port scanners are free and open source. A lot of online port scanners are also available other than the ones mentioned above. NMap is the most popular port scanner for system administrators, network engineers, and developers.

Angry IP Scanner is also a popular tool for scanning the local network and the internet. It can be used by small & large businesses, banks, governments, and network administrators.

We hope this article helped you in learning about the best Port Scanners worldwide.

Article Source