Network utilization / multiple instances of NEWT?

[johnp]

I am trying to maximize the utilization of my network card.  Task manager reports that I am only using 0.08% of its potential.  I\'m not sure what the bottleneck is, but I\'d like to get more performance, and see if I can scan faster.

I have tried to open multiple instances of NEWT, scanning different chunks of the network simultaneously, but it seems that only one will actually scan, and the others will cancel out as soon as I click scan on a new one.

What solution do you recommend?

[Komodo Support]

Hi, if you\'re scanning a network with many computers, the latest version of NEWT should be scanning 25 PCs at a time and can currently scan up to 50 at once.  Scanning 25 PCs usually only takes about 25 kilbobytes per second each way.  So it makes sense your card would show only .08% maximum usage, since NEWT is very efficient.  It also scans about 100 PCs in less than 5 minutes, so it\'s also very fast.

May I ask what version you\'re using at this time?

[johnp]

I just updated to version 2.5 build 153 using the built in updater.  My problem is trying to scan a very large range of IPs, the scan takes a really long time.  Since the network utilization is so low, it seems there should be some way to crank it up a bunch, and get the scanning done faster.

[Komodo Support]

Hello again.  Apologies for the delay.  How large of a range are you trying to scan?

And would be it ok if we contacted you privately using the email address you signed up with?  We\'d like to get deeper into this since it\'s not a common complaint.

[johnp]

Sure that would be fine.  This is a large range of ~2m possible IPs, however I have done everything I can to reduce the time the scan will take, for example only sending one ICMP packet per host.

[Komodo Support]

Are you saying \"~2m\" as in 2 million?  If so, is there a way you could break it up into multiple IP ranges so you\'re not trying to unnecessarily scan ranges where there aren\'t any PCs or devices?

[johnp]

Yes just shy of 2 million IP addresses in the range.  I realize this is a very high number, however my question is concerning the network utilization.  If Windows reports the network utilization as floating around 0.08%, why couldn\'t the scanner simply utilize more of my system\'s capacity to scan a bit faster?

[Komodo Support]

Pinging does require few resources, especially when no pings are returned, and 2 million is quite a lot of IPs to get through for any software like ours, but there are areas we plan to improve.  For one, NEWT is currently discovering by IP first, then scanning.  We\'re working on a new version that scans as new PCs are found rather than waiting until everything is found.  There are several other efficiency improvements planned as well.

These upgrades will be free to all registered owners.  In fact we\'re currently offering Free Lifetime Upgrades.

May I ask, are you using NEWT Freeware or NEWT Professional?

[johnp]

We are running NEWT Professional.  

I have found a workaround that will do for now.  Instead of \"discovering\" the entire network, I am using the built in AD integration to only scan computers recognized by the domain.  I realize I might be missing some hosts such as rouge PCs or workstations not joined to the domain, but the speed is much more acceptable.  Now the scans complete in under 15 minutes.

Please keep me in the loop if you improve on the scanning or find a solution that might better work for me.

Also- why is it that you say pinging requires more resources if no ping is returned?

[Komodo Support]

Usually in any network, there are ways to scan by IP where you can break up a range.  So instead of entering a range like 10.5.100.1 to 10.40.100.255, which is over 2 million IPs, you\'d have multiple IP ranges such as:
10.5.100.1 to 10.5.101.255 (512 IPs)
10.6.1.1 to 10.6.1.255 (255 IPs)
10.40.100.1 to 10.40.100.255 (255 IPs)

This way, you\'re skipping over ranges you know that have no devices.  Of course only a single range at a time is available in the trial version, but if you own a license, you have unlimited ranges.

Sorry if I was unclear before.  What I meant was that LESS resources are used when no ping is returned.  We only send out 1 byte for pings.