Angry IP Scanner is a network scanner that discovers and identifies devices on local networks with a graphical interface.
The tool solves the problem of mapping network topology and device inventory by performing IP range scans and gathering information about active hosts. It works by scanning specified IP ranges and using pluggable fetcher modules to collect details about each discovered device, such as hostnames, MAC addresses, and open ports. The scanner runs on a single machine and reports findings through a native graphical interface.
The tool suits network administrators and users who need to quickly survey their local network without command-line tools. It works well for small to medium networks where a visual, interactive scanner is preferable to scripting. The project runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, with platform-specific installers available for Windows and Debian/RPM packages for Linux. The graphical interface uses the SWT library from Eclipse, which provides native components for each supported platform.
The project maintains active CI automation for builds across platforms. Contributions are actively solicited, particularly from macOS users, with the maintainers noting that platform-specific issues are straightforward to fix when a reproduction environment is available. The build system uses Gradle and supports building packages for individual platforms or all supported operating systems, though cross-platform builds are tested primarily on Ubuntu. The codebase is written in Java and structured around fetcher classes that can be extended to gather additional device information.
