NetScanTools Pro 11.83 Released September 15, 2017

This release improves the user experience in several areas and the UI is less cluttered.

Back when we started adding tools that depended on WinPcap, a computer typically had one interface that WinPcap could use for receiving or sending packets. That has all changed. VPNs, Virtual Machines and secondary network interfaces can all potentially add WinPcap compatible interfaces and those interfaces all show up in the WinPcap Interface dropdown list. The problem is that prior to v11.83 you had to select the right WinPcap compatible interface or the tool did not work right and you saw a message to select the correct interface. What v11.83 brings is automatic selection of the interface based on the input you give. This applies to a number of tools in NetScanTools Pro like ARP Scanner, Ping, Traceroute and others. You will still have to select the correct interface in many of the separately launched tools like Packet Capture or Passive Discovery because those tools are listening tools rather than 'packet sending/listening' tools.

Over the past few years typical monitor sizes (pixels HxW) has radically increased. We originally designed NetScanTools Pro to accommodate monitors as low as 800x600 but I personally use a pair of 1920x1080 monitors. I reviewed our web traffic on Google Analytics and found that nobody is using 800x600 or even 1024x768 so this new version of NetScanTools Pro expands the layout of the buttons and other controls on the right side and spreads them out as a first step towards reducing clutter.

Another annoyance was the 169.254.x.x popup message that appeared on startup, usually if you had Npcap installed instead of WinPcap. The message is gone and 169.254.x.x interfaces are not included in any tool (except those that show interfaces) since they are auto-assigned IP addresses from the operating system and actually not functional.

Many other changes and they are listed below. If you have an active maintenance plan you can download 11.83 through the Help menu/Check for New Version.

The list of changes.

-Usability improvement: Tools that depend on selecting the right WinPcap compatible interface now automatically select the interface based on the target entered. This includes ARP Ping, ARP Scanner, DHCP Server Discovery, Duplicate IP Detection, OS Fingerprinting, Ping - Enhanced, Port Scanner, Promiscuous Mode Scanner, and Traceroute. 'Launched' monitoring tools still require you to select the interface to monitor.

-Reports now have expanded information regarding the settings used for these tools (most are in the 'Notes' section of the report): Packet Flooder, Ping - Enhanced, Ping Scanner, Port Scanner, and Traceroute.

-DHCP Server Discovery now times out quicker if the local port 68 is in use and any network adapters with the IP starting with 169.254.x.x are not shown in the list because they are inactive.

-Maintenance Plan Expiration and other startup messages that appear before the main window is active are now force to appear as the topmost window. This stops the problem of starting NetScanTools Pro and not seeing anything because a startup message window was behind another window.

-Ping Scanner now includes a right click menu option to use your web browser to connect with the selected IP address.

-Fixed minor memory leak in Network Interfaces and Statistics.

-Removed startup message about 169.254.x.x interfaces which shows up more frequently if Npcap is installed instead of WinPcap.

-Began the first steps of a UI improvement by expanding the area used by the tools in the right hand panel. Our research shows that most displays are now wide enough for us to de-clutter the right hand side by making it wider and moving controls.

-Ping: changed the default header acknowledgment field value to 0.

-Traceroute: added header acknowledgment field as a user defined field in Settings.

-SSL Certificate Scanner: Added parsing of Subject Alternative Name (SAN) fields. Shown in the certificate chain. Previous retrievals of SSL certificates are noted in the grid when you edit or start the software. Right click to access the certificate chain. Added more parsing of signature algorithms so OIDs will be less likely to show up.

-Graphical Traceroute: Added Reset Statistics button.

-SNMP and SNMP Advanced: default bulk reps is now 8. Suggest lowering to 8 if you are using SNMPv2c or SNMPv3.

-USB Version Only: startup on a host running Npcap now works correctly.

-Updated SQLite to version 3.20.1

-Updated MAC address/Manufacturer database.

-Updated IP to Country database.

-Updated dates in all subprograms to 2017.