What is the term used to describe the activity of discovering which devices are alive on a network?

What is the term used to describe the activity of discovering which devices are alive on a network?

• A. Scanning
• B. Enumerating
• C. Sniffing
• D. Brute-forcing

Answer: (A)

Scanning is the activity of discovering which devices are alive on a network. In practice, this means sending probes and waiting for responses to identify which hosts are up and reachable, using techniques like ping sweeps or ARP requests on a local network. Once live hosts are known, you can move on to gathering details about them through enumeration. Sniffing focuses on capturing and analyzing traffic, not discovering live devices, and brute-forcing attempts to guess credentials, while enumeration digs into specifics after discovery.

Scanning is the activity of discovering which devices are alive on a network. In practice, this means sending probes and waiting for responses to identify which hosts are up and reachable, using techniques like ping sweeps or ARP requests on a local network. Once live hosts are known, you can move on to gathering details about them through enumeration. Sniffing focuses on capturing and analyzing traffic, not discovering live devices, and brute-forcing attempts to guess credentials, while enumeration digs into specifics after discovery.