Penetration Testing mailing list archives

RE: Nmap scanning speed


From: "Tony Carter" <tcarter () entrusion com>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 04:45:23 -0500



-----Original Message-----
From: Trent () yahoo co uk [mailto:Trent () yahoo co uk] 
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 2:13 PM
To: pen-test () securityfocus com
Subject: Nmap scanning speed

I have to scan a large network. is it possible to get good 
port scanning speed of over 700 ports per second from nmap? 

if so what is the kind of hardware required? hsa 

There are many factors that can affect nmap's speed. Turn name resolution
off while scanning (nmap -n), Tune the IP stack,  use multiple server grade
nics (I like the Intel PCI-X Gig) and split the scans up per interface (nmap
-e). Also depending on your OS, I'd try to bind each nmap process to a
dedicated processor.

If your using Linux, I'd go with a 2.6x kernel as there are a lot of
improvements in SMP and the network stack.

-Tony



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