" port scanner problem"

well,,, i'm new to the port scanner software ,, and when i first used it on my own system to check theopen ports on my pc ( the software i used was superscan...) so... when i performed the test, and i clicked on one of its options called interfaces it showed the following results

address:127.0.0.1
broadcast:255.255.255.255
netmask:255.0.0.0
up:yes
point to point:no
loopback:yes
can broadcast:yes
can multicast:yes

can u plz explain what does this listing mean in simple terms explainng each term barring the address option.

thanx in advance

it's providing a listing for your loopback address (err. one of them as loopback can be anything in the 127.0.0.0 network). it's a local interface only, so theoretically, an remote host cannot directly access it.

address: the ip or internet address of the interface

broadcast: the broadcast address of the network the interface resides on. a broadcast address (as it's name implies) serves as a means to transmit information to every host in the network. in reality this is only true of non-session based transports (ie. udp, icmp, etc.)

netmask: used to identify the network portion of the internet address. in this case the ip is 127.0.0.1, if you 'and' it with 255.0.0.0 this will yield 127.0.0.0 which is known as the network address.
another common notation for netmasks is ip/bit count.
ie: 127.0.0.1/8
where 8 is the number of bits set in the netmask. as a binary representation 255.0.0.0 could look like:

|11111111|00000000|00000000|00000000|

(note the number of bits that are set is equal to 8)

for the ip address 127.0.0.1, using in the same representation would be:

|01111111|00000000|00000000|00000000|


up: just means that the interface is up (enabled, driver is attached, and the device as far as the system can tell is functioning)

point to point: determines the type of physical connection the interface maintains. a point to point (ppp) connection is generally found in some type of dial-up, or cable which is more commonly known as point to point over ethernet (pppoe).

loopback: just determines what was stated at the start of this reply.

can broadcast: partially discussed in broadcast, but means that this interface has the ability to utilize the broadcast address. (although the broadcast address used here is not really accurate - you won't be able to ping or transmit to 255.255.255.255).

can multicast: multicasting is similar to broadcasting to a subscribed list. in multicasting, hosts join a multicast group and then receive and send to that group.


and while all of this is useful background information, it really has little baring on network or port scanning.

aren't port scanners hackers tools? I know they can be used to see if you have any open ports but why not just use a security scanner? they are available free on the net and are alot easier to read.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Ryan Nyquist
aren't port scanners hackers tools? I know they can be used to see if you have any open ports but why not just use a security scanner? they are available free on the net and are alot easier to read.

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port scanners can be used as hacker tools, but a computer in general is a hacker tool. Port scanners are a great way to optimize your security, for one because it does a thorough check and has a longer listing of ports ect. that you may be able to find. I could be wrong about that reason, but my experience with security scanners and port scanners has brought me to that conclusion.

Good luck with your scanner, superscan is a fine piece of software.
And droby10 did a great job of summing those lists up.

I never used super Scan, I use Net Scan Tools Pro 2000(better than Super Scan), but if all you can do is that you must have an old version.

To get the newest version, goto: http://www.foundstone.com/knowledge/scanning.html

I wrote a mini tutorial on port scanning entitled What port is that? that may be useful to you.

Hope it helps. Luck :thumbsup: