Advanced Port Scanner vs NetsCLI

Advanced Port Scanner is a free Windows desktop utility for finding open network ports and identifying software versions reachable through them. It scans TCP and UDP ports across an IP address range and lets you specify which ports to check. Multi-threaded scanning is available, while a high-accuracy mode checks each computer repeatedly at a slower pace. For LAN administration, the program provides Wake-On-LAN, remote shutdown, and commands that can run on remote computers. Discovered systems can be opened through HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, Telnet, SSH, RDP, or Radmin, with configurable clients for some protocols. Computer lists can be exported to XML, HTML, or CSV, and favorites can be loaded from XML. Radmin connections require Radmin Viewer. Famatech describes the tool for LAN and networking work, and says shutdown actions require authorization. It is distributed as a Windows executable installer and costs nothing.

NetsCLI is an open-source network scanner for discovering LAN devices, scanning TCP and UDP ports, querying DNS, and inspecting hosts. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a desktop app, terminal UI, command-line interface, and MCP server built on one Rust core. The desktop app supports multiple investigation tabs, sortable and filterable results, exports, and scan history. Discovery can add reverse DNS, ARP cache details, MAC addresses, and device makers when the operating system has that information. Network operations in the CLI support JSON and YAML output; list commands also support CSV and Markdown. The MCP server runs over stdio and exposes structured network tools to compatible AI clients, including Claude Code and Cursor. NetsCLI is MIT-licensed and free for personal, open-source, and commercial use. Its binaries and installers are said to be checksummed and signed with Sigstore cosign. Packet capture requires separate downloads and libpcap on Linux or macOS, or Npcap on Windows. It does not provide remote administration and lacks advanced service detection, NSE scripts, and OS fingerprinting.