SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a network discovery and administration program for Windows, macOS and Linux. It finds devices on IPv4 and IPv6 networks, checks their exposed services and shared resources, and collects information for a hardware or software inventory. The scan results form a table that can be extended with remote queries, monitored for changes and exported for further analysis.
The program uses a paid licence. Its trial has no time limit, but displays a maximum of ten devices. Some functions vary between operating systems.
Scan ranges and reachability checks
A scan can start with the address range detected from a local network adapter, a manually entered range or a list of particular hosts. SoftPerfect Network Scanner accepts CIDR notation and text files containing addresses or host names. It can also obtain computer lists from Active Directory through an LDAP query. Multiple ranges can remain in the address bar together, with individual switches and comments for selecting particular subnets.
Reachability checks use ICMP, ARP or both, with controls for timeouts, retry attempts and concurrent scanning threads. A separate option continues collecting information even when a device does not answer a ping. For IPv6 devices with automatically assigned addresses, neighbour discovery gathers replies to a multicast request and scans those addresses, avoiding the need to enumerate an enormous address range.
Device discovery
Separate discovery tools look for services advertised on the local network segment. UPnP, mDNS and WSD queries return device names, types and addresses, with web interface links where available. ONVIF discovery concentrates on cameras, adding model, firmware, serial number and stream information; protected cameras can be queried with supplied credentials.
DHCP discovery lists responding servers alongside the addresses, gateways and DNS settings they offer. A duplicate-address tool sends ARP requests and reports an IP address when different MAC addresses answer for it. That function needs Npcap or the older WinPcap driver.
Open ports, service banners and certificates
SoftPerfect Network Scanner checks a chosen list or range of TCP ports and probes common UDP services. Results can show port numbers or their service names. Banner collection adds information returned by services such as web, mail, SSH and database servers, helping distinguish what is answering at a particular address.
Certificate queries retrieve the issuer, subject and expiry details from TLS services on port 443. These values become part of the scan data, so a filter can isolate certificates approaching their expiry date. Host-name resolution, MAC addresses and network-card vendor lookups provide additional identifiers alongside the port results.
Shared resources
Shared folders, drives and printers appear beneath the device that provides them. The scan can include administrative shares, retrieve total and free space, inspect permissions and check whether a folder is writable. Permission details may require administrator access to the remote computer.
The results have a separate share filter for writable, restricted, administrative and other resource types. From a discovered folder, users can open its location or map a network drive.
Remote inventory queries in SoftPerfect Network Scanner
Additional queries turn the device list into an inventory with columns chosen for the information being collected. For Windows targets, WMI queries select system classes and properties through a query builder. Other workstation lookups retrieve installed applications, user accounts, logged-on users and operating-system details. PowerShell scripts can return further information from Windows machines where WinRM is enabled.
For switches, routers, printers and other SNMP equipment, the built-in MIB browser helps select the object identifiers to read. Queries support community-based access and SNMPv3 authentication. Each selected value becomes a result column, allowing equipment-specific data to sit alongside the device’s address and response time.
SSH queries run commands on Unix, Linux and macOS targets using password or key authentication. Each query contains one command and returns its text output. HTTP queries provide another route to device data: XPath extracts values from XML, JSONPath selects JSON fields, and regular expressions can extract values from other text responses. JSON and Redfish query builders help choose the values to collect from server management interfaces.
Credentials can be selected for individual operations through a central manager. A master password encrypts the saved application configuration. The data available from a target depends on its enabled services and the access granted to the supplied account.
Network monitoring
Live monitoring repeatedly pings selected devices and displays latency, packet loss and jitter in the results. Charts retain a rolling hour of measurements, while configurable thresholds mark connection quality. A route view monitors individual hops to show where response times or loss change along the path to a device.
Background scanning refreshes the network inventory at a chosen interval. It can search for new devices, rescan known ones or do both. Events include devices joining or leaving, a new MAC address and a known device changing its IP address. Each event can trigger a notification, sound, application, email or webhook, and the results can be saved after each round.
SoftPerfect Network Scanner can also retain device history for each network. Records use MAC addresses to link sightings, showing first and last appearances and the proportion of scan sessions in which a device responded. The inventory report can focus on recent arrivals or devices that disappeared during a selected period. Devices without a usable MAC address are excluded from this history.
Filtering, exporting and comparing results
The table’s columns follow the scan options and remote queries selected. Sorting and compound filters narrow the list by collected values, while a device properties view brings its information together. An individual query can be refreshed for a device without repeating every other lookup.
Results can be saved as XML, CSV, HTML, TXT or JSON. XML preserves the data for loading back into the program, and two saved XML scans can be compared by IP or MAC address with selected columns included.
On Windows, command-line options can run scans with a saved configuration and export their results unattended. They can also leave background scanning active and update an output file after each round. SQLite output stores devices and shares in related tables for subsequent querying.
Device actions
The Wake-on-LAN manager keeps a list of MAC addresses and destinations for sending wake packets to individual computers or the whole list. Remote shutdown and restart actions are available for Windows targets with the necessary administrative access, including a warning message and delay before the operation.
External applications can be attached to the device menu with commands that receive the selected host’s address, name or MAC address. This supports opening another administration tool against the device already identified in the scan. Nmap integration extends data collection in a similar way: it runs configured operating-system, service-version or script scans, then extracts values from Nmap’s XML output into Network Scanner columns.
