---
title: "Network device scanning requirements | Lansweeper Platform"
slug: "network-device-scanning-requirements"
description: "Review the requirements to scan network devices like printers, switches, routers, firewalls, and NAS with Lansweeper Network Discovery over SNMP."
status: "update"
updated: 2026-07-23T19:48:19Z
published: 2026-07-23T19:48:19Z
canonical: "docs.lansweeper.com/network-device-scanning-requirements"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lansweeper.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Network device scanning requirements

Network Discovery scans network devices such as printers, switches, routers, firewalls, NAS devices, UPS devices, cameras, and VoIP phones. SNMP returns the most detailed data for these devices.

## Supported protocols

Network Discovery can pull data from a device that has one or more of these protocols enabled:

- SNMP (v1, v2c, or v3)
- SSH
- HTTP and HTTPS
- Telnet
- FTP
- SMTP
- mDNS, Bonjour, and DNS-SD
- SSDP and UPnP

SNMP generally provides the most detail. SSH scanning applies only to Unix-based devices, such as Linux, Unix, and macOS. Other network devices are best scanned over SNMP.

## Requirements

- **SNMP**: SNMP must be enabled on the device. Network Discovery connects over UDP 161.
- **Credential**: An [SNMP discovery credential](/docs/create-discovery-credentials). For SNMP v1 and v2c, this is a community string. For SNMP v3, use the configured username and authentication details. A read-only community string is sufficient for scanning.

Many devices have SNMP enabled by default and use `public` and `private` as their community strings, with `public` for read-only access. Protocol support and setup differ from device to device, so check the device documentation for how to enable and configure SNMP.

## Next steps

- [Create discovery credentials](/docs/create-discovery-credentials) for the network devices you want to scan.
- [Create a Network Discovery action](/docs/create-a-network-discovery-action) to define what to scan, when, and with which credentials.