The best ally for a network administrator is having tools that are characterized by being functional, and if, in addition, they are easy to use, even better. Gone are the times when you had to spend a lot of money and time installing a network management solution. Angry IP Scanner is a very light, portable and cross-platform program. It is open source so you can take advantage of the source code, improve it and distribute it freely. In this article, we will discuss what you must do to start using the program and how to get the most out of it from the first day.
What can I do with Angry IP Scanner?
This program will help you scan IP addresses in any range. With this, you will be able to get data such as: general state, if it resolves its hostname , MAC address, and it is even possible to perform port scanning, which is extremely useful to know if there is any service exposed on a certain computer or server on our network . Other very useful features of this software is that it allows us to export and save in various formats all the data obtained after each network scan. The output files it supports are CSV, TXT, XML and even IP-Port List format files.
One of the advantages of this program is that its benefits can be extended through add-ons. As this is a program based on the Java programming language, if you have the knowledge you can write your own plugins to give this solution greater functionality.
How to install Angry IP Scanner quickly
The fact that this program is portable makes it very easy to install on any computer. Now, the only prerequisite is having Java / OpenJDK installed on your computer. But how can I do it?
Install Java / OpenJDK
If you are not sure how to install, download IP Scanner from the official website and open the executable. Follow the steps of the installation wizard and when you want to open the program, you will get the following error message:
Click on “Yes” and it will open a tab where you can download the Java / OpenJDK file. It will automatically detect if your operating system is 32 or 64 bit. Before downloading, choose the version and JVM of your choice. But what is a JVM? Its initials correspond to Java Virtual Machine . This will allow Angry IP Scanner to run properly as it is based on the Java programming language. Then click the blue button to download your JDK file.
Once downloaded, the installation wizard will appear and it is very easy to follow.
Accept the license agreement and check the “I accept the terms of the license agreement” checkbox
When you get to the Custom Installation section, we will see that there are two boxes that have the red X icon. Modify both options and select the option “It will be installed on the local hard drive” .
Finally, click Install and wait a few minutes for the process to perform on its own.
Click Finish.
Install Angry IP Scanner
After the Java / OpenJDK step, we will install the program again. Thus, we will guarantee that it is properly executed. Just follow the installation wizard and in a few minutes, you will be able to run it. As we see below, this solution provides a small but useful tutorial that tells you what you can do with the program.
If we click Next , we will see that it presents a glossary with the most important terms that we must know and understand to get the most out of the program. Also, whoever wants to can refresh their current knowledge in networks.
Then, this window will appear where you can scan the IP range you want, select a random range or, based on a file, perform the scan. That file must contain all the IP addresses of our network that we want to review. You can customize and / or indicate the net mask, so that you can click on Start . Depending on the number of addresses and information you find about each one, it will take more or less time.
Finish the scan and you will have the results in view. The example we see below shows you all the scanned IP addresses according to the range you have indicated. In this case, what you could detect is the ping time and the name of the computer . Of course, according to the IP addresses and what the network in question contains, you will be able to obtain more or less information.
If you want to export the information obtained from the scan, you can do it and by default it will save in .TXT format. However, when saving the file, after specifying the name, you can change the format of the file for another: .CSV , for example.
As you have seen, Angry IP Scanner is a really simple program, free, and it works really well, making it one of the best for Windows operating systems. Keep in mind that it uses Java, therefore, you will have to have it installed in order to run it correctly. What we liked the most about this program is the possibility of exporting all the information for further study.