Install the traffic sensor on Windows

Install the traffic sensor on a Windows host by working through the prerequisites and steps below.

Prerequisites

Review the Traffic sensor requirements
Review the supported operating systems

Supported operating systems

Windows Server (Core) 2025 (x64)
Windows 11 (x64)

Access checklist

Before you start the installation and capture setup, confirm you have the access and permissions below.

Sensor host access: local or remote desktop access to the sensor host; this is the machine connected to your traffic source.
Privileges: a user account with local administrator rights

Install the sensor and hub

Install the traffic sensor on the machine receiving mirrored traffic. You can install it alongside a hub on the same machine, or link it to an existing hub on another machine.

Interactive (GUI)

Silent (config file)

Silent (command line)

In your preferred site, go to Discovery > Systems > Download installers/packages.
Select Network Discovery > Download Network Discovery installer.
Open a command prompt as administrator, and launch the installer, replacing X.X.X with your installer version number:
```
.\Lansweeper-network-discovery-X.X.X-windows-x64-installer.exe
```
Specify the installation directory.
Select which components you want to install. If the hub will be on the same machine as the traffic sensor, select both Install hub and Install traffic sensor.
If the hub is already installed on a separate machine, only select Install traffic sensor. You will need to enter your hub code, found at Settings > Data transfer in the hub.
Optionally, enter:
- Hostname: Specify another hostname for the machine hosting the hub if you’re only installing the IT Sensor.
- TCP port: Specify an alternative TCP port if you want to override the default port for hub-to-sensor communication.
Once the installation is complete, you will be redirected to your Lansweeper Platform. Select the site you want to link with.

In your preferred site, go to Discovery > Systems > Download installers/packages.
Select Network Discovery > Download Network Discovery silent installation configuration.
In your site, select Systems > Link discovery system > Create new code. Specify an expiration date, then select Apply and copy the generated code.
NOTE
The expiration date indicates when the linking code can no longer be used to establish a new connection between a site and your discovery system. Any existing connection between the system and your site will remain active after the expiration date.
On your computer, open the downloaded lansweepernetworkdiscoveryinstallation.cfg file.

In the file:

Replace cloudtokenvalue with your copied linking code
Set components to include trafficsensor (and hub if installing on the same machine)

If the computer requires a proxy server, remove the # for proxyserver=myproxyserver.domain.local and proxyport=8080

mode=unattended

accepteula=1
path=C:\Program Files\Lansweeper Network Discovery
components=hub,trafficsensor
hubinstance=localhost
hubport=59525
installnpcapdriver=1
#cloudtoken=cloudtokenvalue
#proxyserver=myproxyserver.domain.local
#proxyport=808
#hubcode=MyHubCode generated in the hub > Settings > Data transfer > Hub code (only required for distributed deployment of sensors across multiple systems, connecting to a remote hub)

In an elevated command prompt, enter the following command, replacing X.X.X in Lansweeper-network-discovery-X.X.X with the version number of your installer:
Installer version
The version numbers for your installer can be found in your downloaded file name.
```
Lansweeper-network-discovery-X.X.X-windows-x64-installer.exe --optionfile lansweepernetworkdiscoveryinstallation.cfg
```

In your preferred site, go to Discovery > Systems > Download installers/packages.
Select Network Discovery > Download Network Discovery silent installation configuration.
In your site, select Systems > Link discovery system > Create new code. Specify an expiration date, then select Apply and copy the generated code.
NOTE
The expiration date indicates when the linking code can no longer be used to establish a new connection between a site and your discovery system. Any existing connection between the system and your site will remain active after the expiration date.
In an elevated command prompt, enter the following command with the following edits:
- Replace cloudtokenvalue with your copied linking code
- If the computer requires a proxy server, add --proxyserver=myproxyserver.domain.local --proxyport=8080
- Replace X.X.X in Lansweeper-network-discovery-X.X.X with the version number of your installer.
Version installer
The version numbers for your installer can be found in your downloaded file name.
```
Lansweeper-network-discovery-X.X.X-windows-x64-installer.exe --mode unattended --accepteula 1 --path "C:\Program Files\Lansweeper Network Discovery" --components hub,trafficsensor --cloudtoken cloudtokenvalue
```

Next steps

Now that your hub and sensor are installed, the traffic sensor starts inspecting network traffic right away. It records the assets it finds, the connections between them, and their connections to external services such as SaaS applications. The sensor syncs this data to your site, and discovered assets appear there shortly after installation.

View assets discovered by the traffic sensor

To see a filtered view of all assets discovered by your traffic sensor:

Go to Discovery > Systems and select your traffic sensor.
Under Summary, locate the Assets section.
Select Open details to view all assets detected by this sensor.

If you want to keep specific devices out of this list entirely, manage discovery exclusions instead of removing them after the fact.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

How can I uninstall the traffic sensor on Windows machines?

To uninstall the traffic sensor, run uninstall.exe found by default at C:\Program Files\Lansweeper Network Discovery\uninstall.exe.

Will data be sent to the Lansweeper Platform right after installation?

Yes. The traffic sensor starts capturing data immediately after installation. Data is stored in the hub as an intermediate location, and the hub continuously syncs it to the Lansweeper Platform in groups.

You can manually enable or disable the hub and/or sensor from sending data to the Platform at any time. Go to Discovery > Systems, open the detail page of the hub or sensor, and toggle the state to enabled or disabled. This is not configurable on a schedule.

How do I confirm the sensor is processing traffic?

Curl the sensor's metrics endpoint and check the flow and packet counters:

curl.exe -s http://127.0.0.1:8000/metrics | Select-String "^sensor_(flows_count|packets_count) "

Expected output:

sensor_flows_count 173472
sensor_packets_count 288513

These counts are cumulative since the sensor service last started. Run the command twice about a minute apart, if the numbers are incrementing, the sensor is actively processing data.

Install the traffic sensor - Windows