how-to
Guides
How-to guides and cheat sheets for the tools we track.
A vendor-neutral guide to choosing network monitoring software: coverage, protocols, scale, deployment, alerting and licensing — with a recommended all-in-one option.
Read guide →How to inventory a small office network (2026)A practical, tool-agnostic walkthrough for building an accurate picture of every device on a small office network — plan the range, scan it, read the results, and turn a one-off scan into a living inventory.
Read guide →How to read a network scan: what the results actually meanA plain-English guide to reading a network scan — status, IP, hostname, MAC and manufacturer — and to the traps that make results lie: phantom hosts, sleeping devices, randomised MACs and filtered pings.
Read guide →A weekly network-scan routine that takes four minutesA network inventory is only accurate on the day you take it. Here is a light, repeatable weekly routine — scan, compare, act — that keeps an accurate picture of a small office network without becoming a project.
Read guide →Network Scanning Authorization ChecklistA practical checklist for planning an authorized network scan: written permission, scope, timing, notifications, intensity, logging, and handling results responsibly.
Read guide →Nmap Cheat Sheet: Essential CommandsA practical reference of the most useful Nmap commands for network discovery and port scanning, with plain-English explanations.
Read guide →Wireshark Display Filters: A Practical ReferenceLearn Wireshark display filter syntax with real examples for filtering by IP, port, protocol, combining conditions, and troubleshooting common issues.
Read guide →