Angry IP Scanner from zero to CSV

The concept, uncompressed

A sweep tool asks every address in a range the same few questions: alive? named? MAC known? ports open? Answers land in a grid. There is no service, no agent, no residue — close the window and it never happened. That blank-slate quality is why it remains the default recommendation nine years running.

The recipe

1. Set the range

   Hit the IP button to copy your own subnet into the range field. A home LAN is a single /24 — 254 addresses, done in seconds. Larger ranges mostly produce waiting.

2. Pick fetchers

   Tools → Fetchers: add MAC Address and Ports if you want those columns. Each enabled fetcher adds sweep time; enable only what you will read.

3. Sweep

   Press start. The bar fills; the status line eventually states how many hosts replied and how many ports surfaced. Those two numbers are the payload.

4. Read like an admin

   Values in a row: live host. [n/a]: asked, nothing returned. [n/s]: never answered ping, so nothing was asked. An expected device stuck on [n/s] is a phone saving power or a firewall clamping down — check which before panicking.

5. Export for later

   Scan → Export all, choose CSV, name it by date. Twelve files in December is a year of network history; the inventory method explains what to do with them.

Per-OS notes

Windows: runtime bundled, install and go. macOS: unsigned image — right-click → Open once to pass Gatekeeper. Linux: distro package or the .jar on Java 11+.

Recurring questions