NMAP Network Scanner: The Basics

This lesson covers the basics of using Nmap, the network scanner. As a network scanner, Nmap is often used at the beginning of penetration testing to find out basic information about the target website or web app. Nmap, or Network Mapper, is used in security and auditing for checking host or service uptime. It can tell us what’s available on a given network, whether that’s the applications that are in use or whether the network is running firewalls. It can even scan what operating systems are in use on the network. Nmap works on all major operating systems and you can run it as command-line prompts or through the Nmap application called Zenmap. Nmap is incredibly popular with cybersecurity professionals because it is free, easy to use, well-supported and incredibly powerful and can allow you to scan huge computer networks, made up of thousands of machines.