Scan network for writable shares

Question

I have a small-business network with 30 Windows XP machines on a single subnet and in a simple workgroup, not a domain. I would like to put a process in place that scans the network for writable shares. There is only one machine on the network, the file server, that should allow write-access. If there are any other machines that open up I would like to find out about it.

I intend to run the scan daily. I have a Ubuntu machine running Nagios on the network already so the solution could be run from a Windows or Linux environment.

Answer 1

SoftPerfect Network Scanner does that (and more):

Pings computers.

Does not require administrative privileges.

Detects hardware (MAC) addresses even across routers.

Detects hidden shared folders (normally invisible on the network) and write accessible shares.

Detects your internal and external IP addresses.

Scans for listening TCP ports and SNMP services.

Retrieves currently logged-on users.

You can mount and explore network resources.

Can launch external third party applications.

Exports results to HTML, XML, CSV and TXT

Supports Wake-On-LAN, remote shutdown and sending network messages.

Retrieves potentially any information via WMI.

Retrieves information from remote registry.

SoftPerfect Network Scanner is freeware and portable (does not have to be installed).