Active Scanning with Nmap

Identify which hosts are alive before deeper scans.

sudo nmap <IP_RANGE> -sn -oA tnet | grep for | cut -d " " -f5

Ping-only host discovery over a network range, saves output in all formats with prefix “tnet” and extracts live IPs.

sudo nmap -sn -oA tnet -iL hosts.lst | grep for | cut -d" " -f5

Ping-only using an input file hosts.lst.

sudo nmap <target> -sn -oA host

Check if a single host is alive (ARP on local nets / ICMP fallback).

sudo nmap <target> -sn -oA host -PE --packet-trace

Force ICMP echo and show raw packets sent/received (useful for troubleshooting filtering).

sudo nmap <target> -sn -oA host -PE --reason

Show why Nmap considers the host up (ARP reply, ICMP, etc).