NetControler – Smarter Network Monitoring & Management
Discover a curated collection of free solutions designed for administrators, IT teams, and businesses. Whether you need SNMP monitoring, traffic analysis, or network automation, netcontroler.com brings together software and support to keep your systems stable.
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- Our Core Services
Network Operations Suite – Full Control of Your Network Infrastructure
With our platform, you don’t just download tools — you also gain expert assistance. We help you implement monitoring dashboards, configure alerts, and integrate management utilities into your corporate environment for maximum performance and reliability.
ntopng Professional (Free Tier) — Advanced Features with No-Cost Access General Information ntopng Professional (Free Tier) is the entry point into the professional edition of ntopng. It keeps the real-time visibility of the Community Edition but unlocks several advanced features such as traffic profiles, enhanced reporting, and integration with external identity systems. This makes it appealing for teams that have outgrown the limits of CE but are not yet ready for a full commercial license.
ntopng CE — Community Edition for Network Visibility General Information ntopng CE is the free community version of ntopng, designed to give administrators real-time visibility into network traffic without the cost of commercial editions. It is often deployed on a SPAN port or mirror interface, where it can instantly show which hosts and applications are consuming bandwidth. While the professional tiers add reporting and long-term analytics, CE remains a practical choice for quick troubleshootin
mitmproxy — Intercepting Proxy for Real Traffic Debugging General Information mitmproxy is one of those tools engineers keep around when network behavior just doesn’t make sense. It’s an intercepting proxy that sits in the middle of client and server traffic, letting administrators and testers see, change, or replay requests as they happen. Unlike packet captures, which only show raw flows, mitmproxy works higher up the stack, showing exactly what the browser, mobile app, or service is sending a
Zabbix — Monitoring That Grows With the Network Zabbix is one of those tools you find in bigger environments where Nagios or small agents just don’t cut it anymore. It’s open source, been around for years, and many enterprises trust it to keep track of thousands of servers, switches, apps, and even cloud services in one place. How it’s usually run
Wireshark — The Packet Tool That Ends Up on Every Admin’s Laptop What it is Wireshark isn’t just another program — it’s the packet sniffer most admins, security folks, and network engineers reach for. Open source, runs on Windows, Linux, macOS. If traffic acts weird and logs don’t tell the whole story, Wireshark is usually the next step.
Unicornscan — Asynchronous Scanner for Security Research What it is Unicornscan is a network reconnaissance tool built with a focus on speed and detail. Unlike traditional port scanners, it uses an asynchronous stateless design that allows it to send and analyze a massive number of packets very quickly. It’s popular among penetration testers and researchers who need visibility into large address ranges without waiting for hours.
The Dude — Simple Network Maps Without Extra Bloat What it is The Dude comes from MikroTik and is one of those free tools that admins either love for its simplicity or forget about because it doesn’t try to be “enterprise.” It started as a helper for managing MikroTik routers but turned out handy as a lightweight monitor for whole networks. It won’t replace a full observability stack, but for small shops or branch offices it often does the job.
Suricata — IDS/IPS That Keeps Up With Modern Traffic What it is Suricata is an open-source security engine that rolls together intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, and network monitoring. It’s maintained by the Open Information Security Foundation and has become a go-to choice for admins who need visibility without locking into a vendor. The main difference from older IDS tools is that it’s multi-threaded. In practice, that means it can keep up with high-speed links instead of dropping pac
Spiceworks Inventory — Free IT Asset Management Tool
What It Is
Spiceworks Inventory is a free IT asset management and network discovery solution tailored for small and medium-sized organizations. It provides visibility into hardware, software, and connected devices without the need for complex deployment or licensing costs.
How It Works
The platform uses agentless scanning and WMI/SNMP queries to collect data across Windows and networked devices. Results are accessible via a web interface, wh
SolarWinds IP Address Manager (Free) — Basic IP Tracking Tool General Information SolarWinds IP Address Manager (Free Edition) is a simplified version of the commercial IPAM solution from SolarWinds. It’s made for administrators who need to keep track of small address pools without relying on Excel sheets. The free edition supports up to 254 IP addresses, making it suitable for labs, branch offices, or small networks where manual tracking quickly becomes a hassle.
SoftPerfect Network Scanner — Fast IP and Port Scanning General Information SoftPerfect Network Scanner is a lightweight but versatile tool for exploring and auditing local networks. It’s designed for administrators who need quick visibility into devices, open ports, and shared resources. Despite being compact, it offers features that go beyond a simple IP sweep, such as SNMP probing, WMI queries, and remote service checks. The free version works with small environments, while the licensed editi
PingPlotter Free — Simple Graphs for Troubleshooting General Information PingPlotter Free is a small utility that takes the usual ping and traceroute commands and makes them visual. Instead of staring at numbers in a terminal, it shows how latency and packet loss change over time in easy-to-read graphs. The free edition isn’t as feature-rich as the commercial ones, but for many admins it’s enough to catch where the network is misbehaving.
PRTG Freeware — A Starter Pack for Monitoring General Information PRTG Freeware is basically the same engine as the commercial PRTG, just capped at 100 sensors. For a small network that usually means monitoring a handful of servers, switches, or key services. It runs only on Windows, but the setup is quick and that’s why many admins use it for branch offices, labs, or as an easy test before going for a full license.
PRTG Network Monitor — Monitoring That Works Out of the Box General Information PRTG is one of those tools people often recommend when someone says, “we need monitoring, but don’t want to spend weeks wiring it together.” It comes from Paessler and runs on Windows, giving a ready-to-go system with sensors, dashboards, and alerts already built in. There’s a free edition with a limited number of sensors — enough for small shops — and commercial licenses for larger environments.
OpenNMS — Open Monitoring Built for Scale General Information OpenNMS has been around for a long time and it’s one of those projects that tries to cover “everything at once.” It isn’t just about checking if a host is alive — the platform collects performance stats, handles fault events, and can even read NetFlow or sFlow data. That makes it useful in big, messy networks where dozens or even thousands of devices need to be tracked.
Open vSwitch — The Virtual Switch That Became a Standard General Information Open vSwitch (OVS) is an open-source switch built to work inside virtual environments. At its core it behaves like a physical switch, but because it’s software, it comes with extras: tunneling, VLANs, programmable flows. It first appeared as an add-on for KVM and Xen, and now it’s part of almost every serious cloud stack. If a team is building OpenStack or Kubernetes clusters, chances are OVS is somewhere in the network
Observium CE — Community Edition of Network Monitoring General Information Observium CE (Community Edition) is the free release of Observium, a network and system monitoring platform. It’s built around SNMP discovery and automatic graphing, aiming to reduce the manual setup work. The community version is trimmed down compared to the commercial one but still provides solid visibility into switches, routers, servers, and virtual machines. Many admins use it as a quick way to build a monitoring das
Nmap + Zenmap — Classic Scanner with a Handy Frontend General Information Nmap has been around for decades and is still the go-to tool when someone needs to scan a network. It’s command-line driven, packed with features, and can do anything from simple port sweeps to service fingerprinting and OS detection. The downside? Commands can get long and sometimes confusing for newcomers.
That’s where Zenmap comes in. It’s the official GUI wrapper for Nmap, giving admins a way to launch scans and view
NetworkMiner — Passive Tool for Digging into Network Traffic General Information NetworkMiner is not your typical scanner. It doesn’t poke devices or flood the network with probes. Instead, it sits quietly, listens, and pulls information from whatever packets pass by. That makes it valuable in environments where you can’t afford to disrupt traffic — think forensic investigations or security reviews.
NetXMS — Open Source Monitoring That Covers the Whole Stack General Information NetXMS is an open-source monitoring system that tries to cover everything at once — servers, network devices, apps, even custom scripts if needed. It’s not a tiny utility; it’s more like a full package that can stand in for commercial suites. Some companies use it as a free replacement for tools like PRTG or SolarWinds, especially when they want one central place to keep an eye on the entire infrastructure.
NetWorx — Simple Tool for Watching Bandwidth General Information NetWorx is a small utility that shows how much network traffic a machine is using. It doesn’t try to be a big monitoring suite — instead, it focuses on the basics: keep an eye on upload and download speeds, log usage, and warn when something looks unusual. Many admins keep it around for quick checks on workstations, or for users who need to track internet quotas.
NetDisco — Open Source Network Inventory with a Web UI General Information NetDisco is an open-source app that many admins keep in their toolbox for one reason: it shows where everything is plugged in. Instead of digging through spreadsheets or walking to wiring closets, NetDisco asks switches and routers directly and builds its own inventory. It’s not flashy, but it does the job — map devices, find hosts, and keep track of connections.
NetCrunch Tools — Free Utilities for Everyday Network Checks General Information NetCrunch Tools is a free toolkit for Windows that bundles together a set of small network utilities. Instead of installing multiple separate programs, administrators get a single interface with ping, traceroute, port scan, SNMP browser, DNS lookup, and other everyday functions. It’s not a monitoring platform in itself, but a handy set of tools for troubleshooting and diagnostics.
Nagios Core — The Classic That Still Runs General Information Nagios Core is one of those tools that refuses to disappear. It’s been around since the early 2000s, and in many networks it’s still running quietly in the background. The idea is simple: check if something is alive, complain if it’s not. It doesn’t look modern and never tried to, but the stability and the ocean of plugins keep it relevant.
LanTopoLog — Mapping and Watching LAN Topology General Information LanTopoLog is a Windows tool aimed at one thing: showing how the LAN is actually wired. Instead of keeping diagrams in Visio and guessing which switch port goes where, the program asks the switches directly (via SNMP) and draws the map automatically. For admins, that means less manual work and fewer surprises when tracing cables or explaining layout to colleagues.
LANState Free — Basic Network Mapping on Windows General Information LANState Free is the limited edition of LANState, designed for administrators who need simple monitoring and a network map without investing in the full product. It shows a live diagram of devices and their status but with fewer management features compared to the commercial version. For small teams or labs, this stripped-down edition is often enough to get real-time visibility at no cost.
LANState — Visual Map for Network Monitoring General Information LANState is a Windows tool that shows the network as a picture rather than a list. Devices appear on a map, links between them are drawn, and their status updates in real time. For admins, this kind of view is often quicker to read than tables full of numbers — you can literally see which part of the LAN has a problem.
LANMonitor — Lightweight Tool for Local Network Checks General Information LANMonitor is one of those small utilities that many admins keep on hand when they don’t want to fire up a full monitoring suite. It doesn’t try to replace platforms like Zabbix or Icinga; instead, it focuses on the basics — is the host alive, is a port open, is the switch interface overloaded. Because it is light and easy to set up, it often ends up running on an ordinary workstation or a support laptop during troublesho
Icinga 2 — Modern Take on Classic Monitoring General Information Icinga 2 started as a fork of Nagios, but with time it became its own system. The basic idea stayed the same — watch hosts and services, send alerts when something goes wrong — yet the architecture is far more flexible. It’s used in places where classic checks are still valuable, but the environment already needs automation, APIs, and better integration with other tools.
Fing — Fast Way to See What’s on the Network General Information Fing began life as a small command-line utility, but over time it turned into a set of tools that run on just about anything — laptops, servers, even phones. The main idea hasn’t changed: find out who is on the network and what they are doing. Many admins like it because it’s quick, doesn’t require long setup, and works well when a fast answer is needed, not a full-blown monitoring system.
EtherApe — Watching Network Traffic as a Graph General Information EtherApe is a visual network monitor that shows connections as a live diagram instead of just lines of text. Each host becomes a circle, and the traffic between them appears as links that grow thicker when more data flows. For administrators this is sometimes more intuitive than digging through counters — especially when trying to figure out which system suddenly started talking too much on the network.
Darkstat — Lightweight Traffic Monitoring from the Command Line General Information Darkstat is a compact network traffic analyzer that captures packets and turns them into simple statistics. It is often chosen when administrators need a quick way to see who is using bandwidth on a network segment without deploying a full monitoring platform. The program runs quietly in the background and provides a small web interface with graphs and traffic breakdowns. Its strength lies in being minimal, porta
Cacti — Graphing with RRDTool at Scale General Information Cacti is one of those long-standing monitoring systems that many network teams still rely on. Built around RRDTool, it collects numbers over time and turns them into graphs that make sense for capacity planning and daily checks. Internet providers, data centers, and large enterprises often keep it in place because it handles big volumes of traffic data without breaking and offers consistency over years of operation.
Angry IP Scanner — Simple Cross-Platform Scanner General Information Angry IP Scanner has been around for years and is still one of the most convenient ways to check who is online in a subnet. It is an open-source tool that runs not only on Windows, but also on Linux and macOS, which makes it useful in networks where different systems coexist. The program is small, fast to launch, and doesn’t try to be more than it is — a quick scanner that answers the basic question: “what’s alive right now?”
Advanced IP Tools — Practical Utilities for Windows Networks General Information Advanced IP Tools is not a single scanner, but rather a small bundle of utilities aimed at routine network administration on Windows. The idea behind it is simple: instead of juggling a separate program for each task, an administrator can launch one interface and get scanning, monitoring, and a few remote management features in one place. For smaller teams or in situations where speed matters more than elaborate das
Advanced IP Scanner — Windows Network Discovery in Practice General Information Advanced IP Scanner is a small utility created for quick network sweeps on Windows systems. It is widely used by administrators when there is a need to see which machines are alive in a subnet, gather basic details, and reach them directly without setting up a heavy monitoring platform. The program is fast, portable, and has enough features to be practical during audits or troubleshooting, yet it stays simple enough
- About Us
About NetControler
Netcontroler.com is a dedicated platform for network management software. Our mission is to gather the most trusted free tools in one place and make them accessible for IT professionals, administrators, and businesses worldwide.
We provide value for startups, small companies, and large corporate IT departments. By using our catalog, you can implement monitoring, automate configuration, and optimize network performance without expensive licensing fees.
Categories on netcontroler.com include SNMP monitoring, traffic analysis, device configuration, security logging, topology mapping, and network automation. Each program is tested for reliability and long-term use.
Our uniqueness lies in combining free software with expert support. Our team assists with installing, configuring, and integrating these tools into existing infrastructures. From simple monitoring to full-scale network orchestration, we help build solutions that are both secure and efficient.
With netcontroler.com, you don’t just get software — you get a partner in building stable, secure, and manageable IT networks.
FAQ
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Insights That Keep You One Step Ahead
Network Scanning in the Real World
Talk to any admin and they’ll tell you: the hardest part of managing a network is not fixing what’s broken, but seeing what’s really out there. Devices appear, services pop up, someone plugs in a rogue IoT gadget. That’s where scanning comes in. It’s basically shining a flashlight across the IP range and taking notes on who answers back.
Active vs. passive — two different habits
There are two broad ways people approach scanning. One is active: send a ping, poke a port, wait for a reply. That’s fast and noisy but gives solid answers. The other is passive: sit back, watch packets flow, and spot patterns. Less intrusive, sometimes incomplete, but it doesn’t tip anyone off.
Admins use both depending on the job. Security folks, too. Attackers? Same tools, different intentions.
What scanning tells you
Run a decent scan and you end up with:
– a list of hosts that actually exist (not just what’s in the CMDB),
– which ports and services are open,
– the rough health of those endpoints,
– odd traffic that doesn’t fit normal patterns.
It’s not glamorous, but without this, you’re blind.
Typical flow of a scan
Most tools follow a rhythm. First they sweep the address space, then try to draw a crude topology map. After that, they check health — ARP here, ICMP there, maybe deeper protocols if available. Finally, results land in dashboards or reports. Nmap is still the workhorse here; it’s quick, scriptable, and widely trusted.
Different flavors of scans
– Host sweeps – quick pings across subnets to see who’s alive.
– Port probes – sending packets to ports, waiting to see which ones talk back.
– Full network scans – cataloguing OS versions and building a map.
– External vuln scans – looking from the outside in, as if you were the attacker.
– Assessment scans – checking patch levels, antivirus, EDR.
– Pen tests – the deep dive, actually simulating an attack with permission.
Doing it well (and not overdoing it)
Scanning isn’t free — it eats bandwidth and can even trigger alerts if too aggressive. Some ground rules that tend to help:
– schedule scans so they don’t clash with peak traffic,
– automate the routine stuff,
– scan critical systems more often than printers or lab gear,
– keep configs fresh so the tool doesn’t report false alarms,
– and above all, write things down. Results without context age badly.
Why admins keep coming back to it
Because networks don’t stand still. You can buy monitoring platforms, firewalls, and shiny dashboards, but if you don’t scan, you miss the basics: what’s connected, what’s exposed, and what’s broken. That’s why scanning remains the first step in both network hygiene and security defense.
Network Lifecycle Management: Frameworks in Practice
Running a network isn’t just plugging in switches and hoping for the best. Hardware ages, software breaks, and business teams constantly demand “just one more” application. To avoid chaos, most IT groups lean on network lifecycle management. It’s less about buzzwords and more about having a repeatable way to plan, roll out, and operate the infrastructure without surprises.
The Basic Cycle
At the simplest level, the cycle has three steps: Plan, Build, Manage.
– Plan what’s needed,
– Build it,
– Keep it running.
Then repeat. Sounds trivial, but without this discipline, every change turns into a gamble.
Variations on the Model
Different frameworks stretch the idea in different directions.
– ITIL adds a service flavor, with phases like strategy, design, transition, and continual improvement. Good fit where IT is treated as a service provider.
– Cisco’s PPDIOO breaks the work into six parts: Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate, Optimize. It’s heavier, but in big enterprises that complexity actually helps keep teams aligned.
Inside PPDIOO
– Prepare – business goals, ROI, and keeping an eye on industry trends. Think of it as “why are we doing this at all?”
– Plan – project planning, vendor choices, and budgets. Do we buy from the usual supplier, or bet on a new vendor?
– Design – build the architecture, test new ideas in labs, and document everything. Missing docs here means trouble later.
– Implement – turn design into reality. Some companies let the design team handle rollout to ensure nothing gets lost in translation.
– Operate – daily running, monitoring, and incident handling. Hopefully most issues were anticipated earlier, but they always show up eventually.
– Optimize – tweak and improve. The trap here: endless tuning can backfire, creating more complexity than it solves.
Testing Everywhere
Testing doesn’t deserve a single box at the end; it should exist in every stage. Business case validation, lab pilots, pre-deployment stress tests, failover drills — all part of the cycle. The earlier the test, the cheaper the fix.
How Companies Use It
Plenty of teams follow a lifecycle instinctively. A common pattern: refresh about a third of the network each year. That way, nothing gets too old, budgets stay predictable, and staff aren’t overwhelmed by a massive one-time upgrade.
Others move slower or faster depending on regulations, industry pace, or vendor contracts. The exact framework isn’t the point — what matters is having any repeatable cycle tied to IT and business planning.
Why It’s Useful
Without a lifecycle, changes feel random, and outages spike. With it, teams get:
– clearer alignment with business goals,
– upgrades that fit budgets instead of breaking them,
– fewer late-night surprises during rollouts,
– a record of what worked and what didn’t,
– steady improvement instead of firefighting.
In short, lifecycle management turns the network from a patchwork of devices into a managed system that evolves with the business instead of lagging behind it.
Five Pillars of Network Management: FCAPS in Practice
When people talk about managing networks, the conversation often drifts toward tools and dashboards. But at its core, network management is less about pretty graphs and more about making sure the infrastructure doesn’t fail, stays secure, and delivers what the business expects. One of the oldest and still most relevant frameworks here is FCAPS – short for Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security.
The idea dates back decades, yet most IT departments still rely on the same structure, even if the tooling has changed.
Fault Management
Every network breaks at some point – links drop, devices crash, protocols misbehave. Fault management is about spotting those failures fast and dealing with them before users start calling the helpdesk. In practice this means:
– monitoring systems that can distinguish a real outage from noise,
– processes for escalation and recovery,
– keeping a history of incidents to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Without a disciplined approach to fault handling, networks quickly become fragile.
Configuration Management
A surprisingly high percentage of outages come from simple misconfigurations. Someone applies a change on a switch without updating documentation, or a firmware upgrade overwrites settings. Configuration management tries to keep this under control by:
– tracking every modification in hardware and software,
– maintaining backups of device configs,
– automating rollouts to avoid manual errors.
In large environments, configuration drift is inevitable unless there’s a clear system for control.
Accounting Management
This part of FCAPS is often overlooked, but it matters when budgets get tight. Accounting isn’t just about billing; it’s about knowing who uses the network and how much. For a global enterprise, it can highlight overprovisioned bandwidth or identify departments that eat up capacity without justification. Even in smaller setups, usage stats are valuable for cost planning and capacity growth.
Performance Management
Good performance management goes beyond availability. A router might be up, but if latency spikes or packet loss grows, users won’t care about uptime – they’ll just say the network is slow. To prevent that, IT teams measure and analyze metrics like throughput, delay, and error rates. Today, many rely on monitoring systems enhanced with automation or AI-driven analysis that correlate data from multiple layers. The goal is simple: ensure the network keeps pace with business needs.
Security Management
Security has moved from a separate silo into the core of network operations. Firewalls, intrusion detection, access control, vulnerability scanning – all of these now blend with everyday network management. The point is to ensure that only trusted users and devices are on the wire, while unwanted traffic is blocked. With hybrid work and cloud services, this part of FCAPS has grown more complex, but also more critical than ever.
Why FCAPS Still Works
New technologies come and go, but FCAPS remains useful because it forces teams to cover the basics. If a network team can confidently say they have fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security under control, chances are the infrastructure is in good shape. The tools may be different – cloud dashboards, observability platforms, AI analytics – but the categories still map to real-world responsibilities.
Eight Practices That Keep Networks Running
Networks don’t stop changing. New gear comes in, old configs break, users complain about slowness. Keeping it all under control isn’t about some magic platform; it’s about habits. Below are eight that usually separate stable networks from the ones that are constantly on fire.
1. Start with Clean Provisioning
Most headaches trace back to how devices were set up in the first place. Slapdash configs stick around for years. Teams that use scripts or at least basic templates avoid half the “why is this switch different?” questions. It’s boring work, but it pays off every single time.
2. Monitor, but Don’t Drown in Alerts
Watching latency, jitter, and bandwidth is table stakes. The hard part is tuning alerts so admins don’t start ignoring them. SNMP polls, NetFlow, telemetry feeds — pick the mix that makes sense. The goal isn’t charts; it’s knowing what’s wrong before users yell.
3. Troubleshoot Without Guessing
When something breaks, packet captures tell the truth. Wireshark, tcpdump, or even built-in switch counters are still the go-to tools. Some bigger shops add AI correlation on top, but even then, documenting what actually fixed the issue is what saves time later.
4. Control Change, or It Controls You
Most outages are self-inflicted. A rushed config change during business hours, an unreviewed firewall rule — that’s all it takes. Having peer review and scheduled maintenance windows feels bureaucratic, but compare that to explaining a two-hour outage to management.
5. Keep Firmware and Patches Moving
Vendors release bug fixes and security updates nonstop. Skipping them is tempting until a known bug bites in production. The safest way: test first, deploy with a rollback path, and never assume “latest” means “stable.”
6. Stay Aligned with Rules
Compliance isn’t optional. Finance, healthcare, retail — each has its alphabet soup of standards. Manual checking is painful, so more teams lean on automated validation. It’s not about passing an audit once; it’s about proving the network stays within policy every day.
7. Write It Down, Even If It’s Ugly
Nobody remembers every IP or VLAN. Diagrams, text files, even half-finished spreadsheets are better than nothing. Automated discovery tools help keep maps current, though they won’t win design awards. The important part is that the info exists when someone needs it.
8. Resilience Is More Than Spare Links
Redundancy on paper means little if it’s never tested. Simulating failures, checking vendor SLAs, and keeping a couple of spares in storage make a huge difference. Too many “redundant” networks collapse during the first real outage because nobody ever pulled the plug to see what happens.
Why It Matters
Strong network management isn’t flashy. It’s repeating the basics — set up cleanly, watch carefully, fix smart, plan ahead. Teams that treat these as routine usually spend less time in firefights and more time making the network ready for what’s coming next.