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NetDiscover Document

An exhaustive developer guide for integrating decentralized, privacy-preserving federated learning into your applications. Wait, no, it's just a network scanner.

The Main Motive

NetDiscover was built to bridge the gap between complex command-line network scanners and user-friendly visualizations. While tools like Nmap are incredibly powerful, they often require steep learning curves and produce text-heavy outputs.

Our primary motive is to provide a lightweight, accessible, and visual alternative that runs anywhere (via Docker) and presents network topology and service data in an intuitive, modern web dashboard. We wanted to democratize network auditing for developers and hobbyists who need quick insights without the overhead of enterprise tools.

How It Works

NetDiscover utilizes core networking protocols to build a comprehensive picture of a target network, orchestrated by a robust Python Flask backend:

1
Host DiscoveryUtilizes ICMP Echo requests (ping) and ARP broadcasts to reliably identify active devices on a subnet.
2
Service EnumerationPerforms rapid TCP connect scans using a multi-threaded worker pool to identify open ports without needing raw socket capabilities.
3
Banner Grabbing & FingerprintingConnects to open services and analyzes their initial application greetings to determine exact software versions (e.g., Nginx, SSH, Apache).
4
Data VisualizationThe scanning engine stores results in a SQLite database, which is then dynamically visualized as an interactive SVG subnet topology mapping on a responsive frontend dashboard.

Overview Video

Watch Project Overview

How Users Get Help

Comprehensive Logging

The dashboard features a real-time logging console that captures all system events, errors, and scan statuses.

Exportable Reports

Users can easily export their scan results into JSON, CSV, or TXT formats for further analysis or sharing with their team.

Docker Simplicity

By providing a complete docker-compose setup, environment and dependency issues are practically eliminated out-of-the-box.

Open Source Community

Users can report bugs, request features, or ask questions directly on the project's GitHub repository.