The Connections tab on an asset summary has Internal and External views. The Internal view maps how the device communicates with the rest of your network.
To request access to asset connections, sign up for the Lansweeper beta program.
Overview
The Internal view shows the internal assets this device has communicated with, based on network traffic observed by a traffic sensor. Use it to understand what role the asset plays, what it depends on, and what depends on it.
This view is read-only. The data comes from a traffic sensor watching your network. For how that works, see Discover assets with the traffic sensor.
To review the external apps and third-party services this device communicates with outside your network, see View external connections.
Viewing internal and external connections requires the View asset connections permission. Site admins have this permission by default.
Reading the connections table
Each row is an aggregation of network traffic between the selected asset (the asset whose summary you're viewing) and one related internal asset, on a single port, and with a single role.
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Related asset | The connected asset. |
| Role | The selected asset's role in the connection: Client of (it started the communication), Server to (it responded to a request), or Unknown (the relationship couldn't be determined). |
| Protocol | The protocol or service identified for the connection, such as PostgreSQL, SQL, or MongoDB. |
| Port | The port used, such as 443/tcp. |
| First observed | The earliest date this connection was seen, to the day. |
| Last observed | The most recent date this connection was seen, to the day. |
| Connections sent | The number of TCP sessions or well-separated bursts of UDP traffic sent from this asset to the connected asset on the last observed date. |
| Connections received | The number of TCP sessions or well-separated bursts of UDP traffic sent from the connected asset to this asset on the last observed date. |
| Bytes sent | Total bytes sent for this connection on the last observed date. |
| Bytes received | Total bytes received for this connection on the last observed date. |
For bidirectional protocols (such as TCP or DNS over UDP) you should expect to see the same number of connections sent and received on a row.
Show background traffic
By default, Lansweeper filters out background traffic so you can focus on connections that are business-critical or anomalous. Most assets connect to DNS, but that's infrastructure noise, not what tells you a database server's role.
Filtered protocols: DNS, DHCP, NTP, NetBIOS, and LLMNR.
Turn on Show background traffic for a complete view that includes infrastructure connections.
When you don't see data
If the table is empty, one of the following usually applies.
No traffic sensor is set up. Traffic data requires a sensor. Set up a traffic sensor to see which assets this device communicates with, how much traffic is flowing, and in which direction. See Set up traffic collection.
A sensor is active but hasn't seen this asset. The sensor is running but no network activity has been detected for this device. If you expect traffic, verify the sensor has visibility of this device's network segment.
Data freshness
A Last updated date at the top of the page shows when the connections data was last refreshed. Connections are refreshed daily. If a connection wasn't seen on the day of the most recent refresh, the stats shown are from the most recent day that connection was observed.
Connections older than 14 days are not retained or displayed.
How this data is collected
A traffic sensor passively observes network traffic and forwards connection metadata to your Lansweeper site. The traffic sensor captures metadata needed to identify assets and characterize the connections between them.
For what the sensor sees and doesn't see, where the data is stored, and how to control it, see Discover assets with the traffic sensor.