Fing – Network Scanner: Analysis of this Android app to Scan Networks

This application is basically used to:

• Scan Wifi networks and detect all devices.
• Carry out Internet and Wifi speed tests.
• Advanced device analysis of NetBIOS, UPnP, SNMP.
• Detect intruders in the Wifi network.
• Includes port scanning, pinging devices, traceroute, DNS lookup and Wake on LAN.
• If you register you can receive device alerts on your phone and email.

The first thing we are going to do is download the Android Fing – Network scanner app from the Play Store by clicking on the application box below.

Once installed we will find this welcome screen and click on Next .

Next, we have to accept the privacy agreement to use the app. If you want to review the settings you can configure it at your discretion.

The next step we have is to enable the location permission. In this case it is necessary if you want it to show the identified Wi-Fi and be able to recover previous scans.

At this moment it asks us if we want to create a Fing account although it is not necessary for its use.

Some of the advantages of creating a Fing account are receiving:

• Intruder alert.
• Notifications about service interruptions.
• Access to a community of experts.

If we click on Register we will do so to have an account and we will have multiple ways to do it.

As you can see, you have three possibilities, one using the Google account, another using Facebook, and the third would be creating a Fing account by clicking on new user.

The first time I would recommend giving it to I’ll Think About It as I left you selected in a red box. So you can test before if it meets your needs.

Here you have a kind of survey to know what kind of people are using the app. With this the developer intends to better adapt it to the users who use it.

Now we will access the main screen and we will discuss the two main points of the app.

At the bottom you have Home to return to the main screen, Community where users are related and Account where is your user if you have created it in addition to some configuration option.

The two points that we are going to discuss next are:

• Search for devices.
• Speed Test.

Let’s start by clicking on the Search for devices button and a screen like this will appear:

As you can see, my local network at that time was made up of a router, a desktop PC, a mobile phone and two smart plugs.

If you click on Filter you can customize the display options in this section.

In this screen to search for devices if you touch on your router it will show you a series of additional options.

For example, in my case, clicking on Manual has taken me to the manufacturer’s website where information about my model and a link to the user guide came.

Then in the Manage this device part , turning your finger left or right you have a series of tests to perform.

I have started by pinging and I have obtained these results:

Then I made a Traceroute in which it is seen that there is only one jump.

To finish, I clicked on Find open ports and I got the following result.

On the main screen under Search devices we have the Test button. If we click on it, what it will do is a speed test of our Wi-Fi network.

This test can be done on both our 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks. Everything will depend on the network to which your device is connected at that time.

Also in the main one under search for devices we have two other options.

The first section would be Tools in which we have an advanced set of options that is more complex to use and of which I will later show an element.

The second section Internet interruptions shows where there have been connection problems in case you want to consult it.

Finally, to finish in Tools I have selected Find open ports .

As you can see this type of tools is for more expert people who know that IPs have their network.