netscan

Fast cross-platform network scanner. Discover hosts, scan ports, identify services, and resolve MAC vendors. Single binary, no dependencies.

Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Features

• LAN discovery -- find all devices on your network via ping sweep
• Port scanning -- scan specific ports, ranges, or all 65535
• Service detection -- identify services and grab banners
• MAC vendor lookup -- embedded OUI database (500+ vendors)
• ARP table integration -- reads system ARP cache for MAC addresses
• Hostname resolution -- reverse DNS lookup
• Watch mode -- continuous monitoring with new/gone device alerts
• Wake-on-LAN -- send magic packets to wake devices
• mDNS/Bonjour discovery -- find AppleTVs, Chromecasts, printers, HomeKit devices by service
• SNMP v1/v2c/v3 -- query switches, routers, printers; walk OIDs; list interfaces
• IPv6 neighbor discovery -- list IPv6 neighbors from NDP cache
• Prometheus metrics export -- scrape scan results in watch mode for Grafana
• Embedded web UI -- clean dashboard at http://localhost:8080, no separate install
• Multiple output formats -- table, wide, JSON, CSV

What Makes netscan Different

Feature	nmap	Angry IP	Fing	netscan
Single static binary (no deps)	❌	❌ (JVM)	❌	✅
Cross-platform	✅	✅	Partial	✅
Size	20+ MB	120 MB JVM	App bundle	~3.5 MB
mDNS discovery built-in	❌	❌	✅ paid	✅
SNMP walk built-in	❌	❌	❌	✅
Prometheus export	❌	❌	❌	✅
Web UI built-in	❌	✅ (GUI)	✅ (app)	✅ (embedded)
Wake-on-LAN	❌	❌	✅ paid	✅
JSON/CSV output	XML only	✅	❌	✅
curl-installable on any box	❌	❌	❌	✅

Install

One-liner (Mac and Linux)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmsperu/netscan/main/install.sh | sudo bash

The script auto-detects OS and architecture (amd64/arm64), downloads the correct binary from the latest release, and installs it to /usr/local/bin/netscan.

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmsperu/netscan/main/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --version v0.1.1

Install to a custom directory (no sudo needed):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmsperu/netscan/main/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR=~/.local/bin bash

Manual download

Grab the right binary from Releases:

Platform	File
macOS (M-series)	netscan-darwin-arm64
macOS (Intel)	netscan-darwin-amd64
Linux (x86_64)	netscan-linux-amd64
Linux (ARM64)	netscan-linux-arm64
Windows (x64)	netscan-windows-amd64.exe
Windows (ARM64)	netscan-windows-arm64.exe

# macOS M-series example
sudo curl -L https://github.com/jmsperu/netscan/releases/latest/download/netscan-darwin-arm64 -o /usr/local/bin/netscan
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/netscan
sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/netscan   # macOS Gatekeeper

Go install

go install github.com/jmsperu/netscan@latest

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/jmsperu/netscan.git
cd netscan
make build

Cross-compile for all platforms:

make build-all    # outputs to dist/

Quick start

netscan                    # scan current subnet (auto-detect)
netscan 192.168.1.0/24     # scan a specific subnet

Usage

Default scan

netscan                              # auto-detect subnet, scan common ports
netscan 10.0.0.0/24                  # scan specific subnet
netscan -p 22,80,443                 # scan specific ports
netscan -p 1-1024                    # scan port range
netscan --all                        # scan all 65535 ports
netscan --fast                       # ping sweep only (no port scan)

Output formats

netscan -o table                     # default table output
netscan -o wide                      # wide table with all fields
netscan -o json                      # JSON output
netscan -o csv                       # CSV output

Deep port scan

netscan ports 192.168.1.1            # scan common ports on a single host
netscan ports 192.168.1.1 -p 1-65535 # scan all ports
netscan ports 192.168.1.1 --all      # same as above
netscan ports 192.168.1.1 -t 1000    # 1000ms timeout
netscan ports 192.168.1.1 -c 2000    # 2000 concurrent connections

Watch mode

netscan watch                        # monitor current subnet (every 60s)
netscan watch 192.168.1.0/24         # monitor specific subnet
netscan watch -n 30                  # scan every 30 seconds

Wake-on-LAN

netscan wake AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF              # send magic packet
netscan wake AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -b 192.168.1.255   # specify broadcast address

mDNS / Bonjour discovery

netscan mdns                              # browse common service types
netscan mdns --timeout 10                 # longer discovery window
netscan mdns --service _googlecast._tcp   # specific service

Finds AirPlay speakers, Chromecasts, HomeKit devices, network printers, SMB shares, and more.

SNMP

netscan snmp 192.168.1.1                         # quick summary (v2c, "public")
netscan snmp 10.0.0.1 -c private                 # custom community
netscan snmp 192.168.1.1 --interfaces            # list interfaces
netscan snmp 192.168.1.1 --walk 1.3.6.1.2.1.1    # walk a subtree
netscan snmp 192.168.1.1 --oid 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0 # single OID
netscan snmp 10.0.0.1 -v 3 -u admin --authkey PASS --privkey PRIV    # SNMPv3

IPv6 neighbor discovery

netscan ipv6                    # list discovered IPv6 neighbors
netscan ipv6 --reachable        # only reachable neighbors
netscan ipv6 --refresh -i en0   # send multicast ping to refresh cache

Prometheus metrics export

Expose scan results for Prometheus scraping (perfect for watch mode + Grafana):

netscan watch 10.0.0.0/24 --prometheus-port :9100

Then in Prometheus:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: netscan
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['netscan-host:9100']

Metrics exposed: netscan_hosts_up, netscan_scan_count, netscan_scan_duration_ms, netscan_port_open{ip,port}.

Web UI

netscan web                       # http://localhost:8080
netscan web --addr 0.0.0.0:8080   # expose to LAN

Clean terminal-aesthetic dashboard — trigger scans, see hosts, ports, and vendor info. Metrics endpoint at /metrics.

Flags reference

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--ports	-p	22,80,443,...	Ports to scan (comma-separated or range)
--fast	-f	false	Ping sweep only, skip port scan
--all		false	Scan all 65535 ports
--output	-o	table	Output format: table, json, csv, wide
--timeout	-t	500	Connection timeout in milliseconds
--concurrency	-c	256	Max concurrent connections
--verbose	-v	false	Show detailed output
--no-resolve		false	Skip hostname resolution
--no-vendor		false	Skip MAC vendor lookup
--interface	-i		Network interface to use

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE. Attribution requirements per §4(d) are in NOTICE. Trademark usage: TRADEMARK.md.

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