How the course works
LANScan365 is twelve lessons in three modules. Each lesson opens with its objectives, teaches one idea with screenshots and real commands, ends with an exercise on your own network, and closes with a checkpoint: four to six things that should now be true. If one of them is not, the section that fixes it is directly above.
The lessons follow one fictional office, Kestrel & Vale, a 35-person accounting firm. Its network is deliberately ordinary — a domain controller, a file server, a NAS, two printers, a camera recorder, a guest Wi-Fi — so that what you see in the lessons looks like what you will see at work. Where an address or a share name appears in a lesson, it is Kestrel’s; replace it with yours when you do the exercise.
Plan on about 8 hours in total. Most people do one lesson per sitting over two or three weeks. The lessons are free, need no account, and set no cookies beyond the one that remembers your cookie choice.
Module A: Build the LAN
Four lessons about getting the network into a state worth scanning. You write down what should exist, give it an address plan that can grow, prepare Windows so that file sharing happens only where you intend it, and then run your first scan with Network Scanner.
- 0135 minnetwork-map.md
Map the network before you scan it
Write down what should be on the wire — segments, servers, printers, owners — so every scan result has something to be compared against.
- 0240 minip-plan.xlsx
An address plan that survives growth
Carve the private range into segments, keep servers and printers on reservations, and turn the plan into scan targets you can type once and reuse.
- 0345 minshare-register.md
Prepare Windows for file sharing
Network profiles, discovery, the File and Printer Sharing firewall rules and share vs NTFS permissions — set up on purpose, not by accident.
- 0430 mina first saved result
Your first scan with Network Scanner
Build a target from a range, an expression and a name list, pick the services to query, run the scan and save the very first result file.
Module B: See the LAN
Four lessons about reading what the scanner tells you. You learn the results tree and its filters, tune the online checks so quiet hosts stop hiding, keep a baseline to spot changes, and track down every web console and FTP server on the network.
- 0530 minquestions.md
Reading the results tree
Ranges, computers, shares and their icons, the Latency and Comment columns, and the Filter tab that turns a long tree into a short list of questions.
- 0635 mincheck-profile.md
Online checks and computer names
Ping or TCP connect, timeouts, attempts, NetBIOS or DNS names — tune the checks until silent hosts stop being invisible.
- 0740 minchanges-log.md
Save a baseline and spot changes
Keep result files, read the First scan and Last scan columns, export to HTML, XML or TXT and compare two scans without buying another tool.
- 0835 minservices.md
Find every web console and FTP server
Routers, printers, NAS boxes, camera recorders: every HTTP and FTP service on the LAN, opened, identified and given an owner.
Module C: Secure the LAN
Four lessons about access. You check who can read and write each share, deal with administrative and hidden shares, repeat the scan as an ordinary user to see what a normal — or stolen — login can reach, then fix what you found and write it up.
- 0945 minaccess-review.md
Who can read and write each share
Turn on access checking, filter for Write, and decide share by share whether the access you see is the access that was intended.
- 1035 minhidden-shares.md
Administrative and hidden shares
C$, ADMIN$, IPC$, print$ and the shares someone hid with a dollar sign — which are normal, which are risky and which should go.
- 1140 minuser-view.md
See the network as an ordinary user
Scan again with a standard staff account and find out what a normal login — or a stolen one — can reach.
- 1260 minlan-security-report.html
Harden, re-scan and write the report
Close what the lessons found, prove it with a fresh scan, and hand over a short report with the exported results attached.
What you need
| Item | Why | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A Windows PC on the office LAN | Runs Network Scanner and the PowerShell checks | The vendor lists Windows 7 to 10 and Server 2008 R2 to 2016; newer Windows is not on the list, so test it first |
| LizardSystems Network Scanner | The scanner used in every lesson from 4 onward | From the vendor only — see Download and Install |
| An administrator account | To read share and firewall settings on servers | Scanning itself does not need admin rights |
| A standard test account | Lesson 11 scans as an ordinary user | A fresh domain user in no extra groups, disabled when you finish |
| Permission to scan | It is not your network until someone says so | Written, with the ranges listed — lesson 1 has a template |
| About an hour per lesson | Reading plus the exercise | Lesson 12 takes longer |
Your lab notebook
Every lesson leaves something behind: a map, a plan, a saved scan, an export, a list of findings.
Keep them together in one folder so that lesson 12 can turn them into a report. The course uses
C:\LANScan365\ with three subfolders:
| Folder | What goes in it |
|---|---|
C:\LANScan365\results\ | Result files saved from Network Scanner (File → Save / Save as) |
C:\LANScan365\exports\ | HTML, XML and TXT exports, and name lists made from them |
C:\LANScan365\notes\ | Your Markdown or spreadsheet notes: map, address plan, registers, findings |
If your organisation has a documentation system — a wiki, a SharePoint library, a ticketing tool — put the notebook there instead. What matters is that it exists, it is dated, and the next person can find it.
What you finish with
By the end of lesson 12 you will have a network map, an address plan, a share register, a saved baseline scan, a register of web and FTP services with owners, an access review, a list of hidden shares with a decision against each one, a user-view scan, and a short security report with the exported evidence attached. More useful than any of those documents: you will know what is on your network and who can reach it.