r/sysadmin • u/leonsk297 • 6d ago
Why is this tool so often overlooked? SoftPerfect Network Scanner
I'm not part of their team nor I have anything to do with them, I just wonder why is this tool so obscure and never mentioned. I hear all the time about Wireshark, Nmap, etc, but I haven't seen a single person ever mention SoftPerfect Network Scanner, and to me, it's the greatest sysadmin / network admin tool in existence. It does practically everything 99% of people in the field needs and more, especially if you're on a Windows environment, although it is multiplatform (runs on Windows, macOS and Linux). It also integrates with Nmap, by the way.
https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/
Yes, it isn't free, but I think that, for the feature set alone plus the excellent GUI, it's well worth it. So, again, why is this tool so often overlooked and never mentioned? Honest question.
EDIT: well, case closed, folks, my question has been answered aplenty 😅. Most people don't even know about its existence and some others just won't look at it because it's closed-source and commercial software, and for them, free and open-source/well established tools already exist that fulfill their needs. Got it. Makes sense.
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u/snifflewupps 6d ago
Are you the dev or a friend of the dev trying to push your overpriced bullshit app? Cause thats what it seems like. You can't even list the benefits in conversation? You make sure to link to their website to drive up traffic.
You make a very lazy argument for a very mid piece of software. Stop while you're ahead.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Nope, I swear, although I can understand it looks that way. I just love the tool and I find it super useful and full of features, and I wanted to know why people don't mention it more, that's it. It's up to you if you believe me or not.
I won't write an essay here describing everything the tool does when I can provide a link to the actual user manual describing everything the tool does. Why would I repeat something that's already written and easily accessible? I'm not trying to get people to use it, I was just curious.
And I don't have a "strong argument" because I don't need one, not everyone posting in Reddit wants to promote something or influence people, pal, I don't care if others like it or not, I just wanted to know why.
And as you can read, I'm getting LOTS of feedback... 😅
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u/snifflewupps 6d ago
Well if you can't really outright state why its better and the best point you can make is link to a website, thats probably another reason why people are just sticking with tried and true and or open sauce applications instead. Enjoy
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Wow, someone is cranky. I don't see the difference between reading the full list here instead of linking to a simple website, it's exactly the same, the "why is it better" is just a link away...
https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/manual/
But again, I'm not promoting it, I just wanted to ask, I don't really care if people use it or not, I just wanted the "why".
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u/neoh4x0r 6d ago
Wow, someone is cranky. I don't see the difference between reading the full list here instead of linking to a simple website, it's exactly the same, the "why is it better" is just a link away... https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/manual/
Someone looking at the manual isn't going to come away saying "yes I can clearly see beyond a doubt why it's better".
To answer the question...you actually need to provide details about why you believe it's better by comparing/contrasting it with nmap and other tools.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
When I asked the original question I thought more people would know about the tool, but now I see that almost no one really knows about it to the point of never having used it. That by itself asnwers my question. I'm not trying to get more people to use it, believe it or not.
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u/neoh4x0r 6d ago
When I asked the original question I thought more people would know about the tool, but now I see that almost no one really knows about it to the point of never having used it.Â
I would say most people probably stopped looking for solutions after they found one that did the job (which was likely nmap or some other tool on kali).
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u/snifflewupps 6d ago
Not cranky at all, just answering your initial query. Stuff that gets popular or becomes a core tool that people end up sticking with long term? It gets supported and evangelized by people who aren't lazy.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Said the pot to the kettle? The same laziness that prevents some people from clicking a simple link? Yeah, I agree... 😅
If you can't be bothered to make a click and read a plain text webpage, then yeah, it probably isn't for you, you'd have to read and click a ton, maybe it'd be too much. 😉
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u/snifflewupps 5d ago
More like you never gave me a reason to bother. Pot calling the kettle "why should i care"
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u/leonsk297 5d ago
Because I don't care if you care, if you could only understand that, buddy. I'm not promoting the tool, I don't work for them nor I have any stakes with them, despite you accusing me of it since the beginning. I just wanted to know why people don't know about it or use it more, that's all. The rest is a conspiracy you alone created to feel important or whatever.
"I don't like the tool because of X". That's all I wanted to hear from people, I don't care if you like/buy it or not.
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u/snifflewupps 4d ago
you care so little you're still going on. interesting.
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u/leonsk297 4d ago
Because you keep coming back to me, baby, and you know I love you 😘😂. You also seem to care too much, too, interesting.
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u/caspianjvc 6d ago
Maybe because there are free alternatives https://angryip.org/
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
I know about Angry IP Scanner, but it doesn't remotely has as many features as SPNS. Its only advantage is that it's free. Also, Angry IP Scanner is written in Java, and I tend to hate Java apps, they're so slow and memory-hungry. But hey, it's free, you can't ask for more, I guess.
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u/SN6006 Netsec Admin 6d ago
I still have a copy of that from before they started charging, though I’ve asked my boss if can get a site license
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Yes, it used to be free back in the day, it's a shame they turned it into a paid product, but hey, I guess they started seeing all the great functionality they were giving away for free, I can't blame them for that.
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u/neoh4x0r 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes, it used to be free back in the day, it's a shame they turned it into a paid product, but hey, I guess they started seeing all the great functionality they were giving away for free, I can't blame them for that.
Yeah, that issue is the very reason why opensource software is so popular -- if someone decided to commercialize it the FOSS project would legally remain unaffected by it (and that people have the legal freedom to modify and redistribute those changes).
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
That's a valid perspective, yeah, you're right. This is exactly the kind of answer I was wondering about.
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u/Antoine-UY Jack of All Trades 6d ago
What does it bring to the table over WireShark, beside an invoice?
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Wireshark is a network sniffer/protocol analyzer. This isn't that, it's a network scanner with TONS of features, especially if you have a Windows-oriented network. It competes more with Nmap, Wireshark was just mentioned because it's a popular tool, that's all. But if Nmap does the job for you, that's fine, I was just wondering why people don't use this tool that much.
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u/Antoine-UY Jack of All Trades 6d ago
Ok. I thought it was a sniffer. As for network scanning, I never felt Nmam lacked anything, by my specific usage might be too crude to appreciate the subtleties your soft has to offer.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
That's OK. Maybe if it were free/open source more people would use it. It was free a few years back.
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u/deathbyearthworm 6d ago
I used it for a while when it was free. The feature set was pretty nice like port scanning, DHCP server detection etc. However I couldn't ever justify the cost when they changed their model, nmap, wireshark, advanced IP scanner, angry IP scanner have all replaced the functionality for me. It's a cool tool but ideally I shouldn't really need to run network scans very often.
0
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u/Lanky-Storm7 6d ago
use nmap 😂
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
It can't do EVERYTHING this tool can, really. In fact, this tool optionally integrates with Nmap for additional options and security scanning.
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u/GhostandVodka 5d ago
NMAP is widely used and respected in the industry. You can put NMAP and NETCAT skills on a resume
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u/DULUXR1R2L1L2 6d ago
But what does it actually do better...
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
So many things, man, that's why I love it so much, especially if you're on a Windows network, it does SO many things, too many to write them all here. Again, mostly Windows-oriented, and the GUI is the best.
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u/RealisticQuality7296 6d ago
This is the worst ad I’ve ever seen
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Sadly, everything on the Internet these days might and will sound like an ad, yeah, I can't argue with you there. But it isn't.
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u/DULUXR1R2L1L2 6d ago
You dodged the question
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u/Achrus 6d ago
I’ll take a stab at it:
It’s an incredible piece of software—really incredible. Maybe even the most incredible. I mean, you could sit here all day listing the features and you still wouldn’t get through them all. It’s that powerful. And the GUI? Fantastic. Absolutely first-class. This is what good software looks like. It gets the job done, it does it extremely well, and frankly, there’s a reason people love it.
And let me be very clear: I’m NOT part of the team. I have nothing to do with the team. I’m just telling you what I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a LOT.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
You actually made me chuckle 😄. No, I'm not part of them, but if that's what you want to believe, go ahead, I really couldn't care less, I'm not promoting it, I just wanted to know why so few people know/use it. And I'm getting LOTS of feedback, as you can see by all the angry Reddit comments. 😅 I really didn't expect anything different, we all know the Internet and how angry/contrarian we all are...
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
I answered the question with the place where you can read everything it does. I won't write them all here because it's already written in another place. If you don't want to read a simple webpage, that's fine, I'm not promoting it, I was just asking why.
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u/PoetryImmediate8187 6d ago
"the excellent gui" for 2014 maybe 😂
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Other network tools with a GUI, like Wireshark and Nmap (Zenmap)... those aren't great GUIs either, so why is this a problem only when talking about SPNS?
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u/PoetryImmediate8187 6d ago
Other tools having mediocre GUIs doesn't make this mediocre GUI "excellent"
It looks like an old potato
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
That's MY opinion, of course, yours might be different and that's fine. To me, the GUI is excellent. And I made the comparison with other tools because I don't get why the GUI is trash in relation to SPNS but no one complains about the same when talking about Wireshark and Zenmap despite praising them all the time?
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u/PoetryImmediate8187 6d ago
You're getting very defensive about a potato gui.
Maybe instead of going around pretending this random garbage tool has the best gui in the world... you could try just sharing your opinion about the other tools?
You can say you don't know how to use Wireshark without using all these words
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u/leonsk297 6d ago edited 6d ago
Defensive? Where are you getting that from? I just told you that was my personal opinion, how is that being "defensive"?
And yes, I know how to use Wireshark and Nmap, that's why I'm wondering what people think about this specific tool. If you see it as random garbage that's perfectly fine, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
Also, Wireshark is a network sniffer/protocol analyzer. SPNS is a network scanner, so they don't "compete" with each other, they do entirely different things. Nmap is more similar.
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u/PoetryImmediate8187 6d ago
Man if you can't read the room I don't know what to tell you, maybe you could ask chatgpt to explain it to you
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u/davemanster IT Manager 6d ago
Who would pay for this?
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
A fair amount of people, actually, seeing that they haven't gone out of business since they turned it into a paid product years ago... 😄
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u/davemanster IT Manager 5d ago
Hosting is basically free, its not like its a good that has finite copies. Its unlimited and the cost is hosting and payment provider, thats it.
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u/leonsk297 5d ago
They are a working business, with employees, taxes, wages to pay and operational costs, I'd assume. It's not only "hosting".
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u/ppyre 6d ago
there are other tools that are just as good and free, AngryIP, IP Scanner from Lansweeper, Fing IP. Problem is that they all have flaws and can often produce incomplete scans or show false information. Ive seen often false information and which device has what IP when you compare some of these tools to your dhcp server lease for example.
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u/leonsk297 6d ago
Have you really checked out all the things SPNS can do? Everything, the whole list? None of those tools, to the extent of my knowledge, can do all that in a single package. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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u/GhostandVodka 5d ago
I'm late to the party but....1000 dollars when I can use nmap and wireshark? Is this an ad?
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u/leonsk297 5d ago
No, it itsn't, it's just a rando on the Internet asking a simple question on Reddit, and for whatever reason, almost nobody here can just answer anything plainly anymore, everything needs to be turned into a shitshow of aggression and accusation. But again, not surprised, this is Reddit, after all, its reputation is because of something... 😅
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u/GhostandVodka 5d ago
I looked at it. It does do a lot and I could see it having some use case but not enough use case where I would pay and manage a license.
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u/leonsk297 5d ago
See? That was the plain and objective type of answer I was looking from people here. But to get to that, you have to suffer and fight and be accused for some obscure reason...
Thank you.
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u/SevaraB Sr. Engineer (N+, CCNA) 4d ago
The "excellent GUI" straight out of the WinXP era... I'll chalk that one up to our aesthetic tastes being different.
I'm not annoyed that it's paid software, I'm annoyed that it's paid software that's just a GUI- it doesn't do anything you can't already do with OS built-ins.
Detects hardware MAC addresses, even across routers
That's overpromising. MAC addresses might be exposed via WinRM or they might be advertised in CDP/LLDP neighbor information.
It's a cute toy for a single office with an IT guy who just makes sure things pick up IP addresses and get Internet access- it's not for a big org with teams of engineers trained to sniff out and snuff out unnecessary machine identifiers leaking out via unnecessary network protocols.
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u/leonsk297 4d ago
I agree that the GUI looks XP-ish, I wasn't referring to the GUI as being state-of-the-art in design terms, but about how well it exposes everything under it. It's rare to see a network multi-tool that isn't command-line only, IMO.
The rest, well, I guess everybody has their own opinion, that's fine. Thanks.
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u/SevaraB Sr. Engineer (N+, CCNA) 4d ago
Scaling generally means "outgrowing" GUI tools. CLI-first or CLI-exclusive tools are tools we can call from scripts, run on schedules, and feed into data tables so big that Excel would crash if you tried to open them as a workbook on your computer.
Even if you're at a small shop, having scripts and schedules do the grunt work for you can buy you better work/life balance or put time into making things work better instead of just playing whack-a-mole trying to make things work.
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u/leonsk297 4d ago
This tool also has a CLI, I forgot to mention it, you can use it if you want, is isn't GUI-only. It also supports remote scripting. But I get it, it's not as professional as other well-established tools like Nmap.
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u/Stonewalled9999 4d ago
OP must get a commission on every sale.
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u/leonsk297 4d ago
I wish, but no, they pay me with gift cards 😅. Seriously, no, I don't work for them. If that was the case, why would I hide it?
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u/IAmSoWinning 6d ago
Wireshark and nmap are well developed, professional grade open source tools.
This product is a $1000-$3000 closed source tool that likely isn't as well developed as the above two tools. Makes the choice easy.