NetScanTools Pro Support
provided for historical reference only

Windows 7: Versions earlier than 10.81 are not recommended for Windows 7.

Windows Vista: Versions earlier than 10.41 are not recommended for Windows Vista:

We no longer support any versions older than v11. Please upgrade here.

Problem (all NST Pro versions including v11, any operating system): Incorrect reporting of TCP ports 25 (smtp) and 110 (pop3) as being active on a target system when there are not really any services running on those ports.

Symptoms: Unlike normal connect responses to these ports, you do not receive any login banner data back. These ports always appear no matter what IP you are scanning even if the IP does not exist.

Solution: Your antivirus program probably has the capability to scan incoming and outgoing email for viruses. This is a good feature to have, however, not when you are running a port scan of another computer. Simply disable email virus scanning on your antivirus program disable the antivirus program while doing a port scan, then reenable it later. On Norton Antivirus, this can be done by selecting Options on the main window, then selecting Email under the Internet heading and unchecking the boxes under What to scan. Certain firewalls may also produce false positives too on other ports. You may need to consult your firewall documentation for specific fixes. Port Probe (scanning) will always work best when there are no firewall or other filtering devices/software between NetScanTools Pro and the target system.

Problem (NST Pro all versions 2003 and earlier): Whois queries for '.org' either fail or produce useless results. The problem is the whois servers have yet again reallocated responsibilities for reporting information. Workaround depends on the version of NetScanTools Pro that you have. Posted February 5, 2003.

Solution, NetScanTools Pro 2003 only: Get the Service Pack above for NetScanTools Pro 2003.
Solution, NetScanTools Pro 2000/2001/2002 only: In whois setup, enter whois.pir.org in the Step One .com, .net Whois Server edit box. Then do your '.org' query. After you are done with the '.org' query, return the Step One Whois Server back to the original server. We will be automating this process soon in the next Service Packs for NetScanTools Pro 2002 releases, but not for the earlier versions 2000/2001.

Problem (NST Pro all versions 2002 and earlier, Windows NT4/2000/XP only): While installing NetScanTools Pro, you get most of the way through the installation, then see an error message 115 and the installation aborts. Posted 12/20/02.

Solution: Logout of Windows and relogin as an Admin privileges user. NetScanTools Pro requires administrative privileges for certain functions to work correctly.

Problem (NST Pro all versions, Windows XP only): NetScanTools Pro when run on Windows XP is unable to sort out NetBIOS (Windows) computer names returned to it during NetScanner sweeps. XP's netbt.sys fails for multithreaded NetBIOS name responses. For more info, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q317936.

Solution: Install Windows XP Service Pack 1, 2, or 3.

Problem (NST Pro 2002/2001 only): When using the Whois tab to query on an IP Address, you see a message similar to this one below: 

[Query: 216.144.1xx.xx, Server: whois.arin.net] 

No match found for full 216.144.1xx.xx. 

# ARIN Whois database, last updated 2002-08-28 17:05 
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's Whois database. 

[End of Data]

This error is due to a change in the whois server at arin.net. We are working on new Service Packs for both 2002 and 2001 and they will be released in reverse order, more recent version to oldest version.

Solution: Perform the following steps for a workaround only when you see that message from arin.net: 
1. Upon seeing that sort of message, unselect SmartWhois. 
2. Next press whois Setup. 
3. Select whois.arin.net as the default whois server and make sure it's using port 43. 
4. Press OK to close setup. 
5. Enter +ipAddress [ex. +204.122.16.1] 
6. View the results... 
7. Reselect Smartwhois checkbox.

Problem: Upon starting a second instance of NetScanTools Pro 2003, 2002 or NetScanTools Pro 2001 Release 2, you see an error similar to: 
Error #: -20 
Error #: 90602 
Creating File 
file4create 
C:\Program Files\NWPS\Netscantools Pro\ipmac.dbf

This error means that the database drivers we use are only allowing the first instance of NetScanTools Pro to access the IP/MAC Address tab database. Any subsequent instances of NetScanTools Pro cannot access the database and the data area of the IP/MAC tab will appear empty on those instances. This behavior is by design. You can use all other functions in NetScanTools Pro that do not access the database.

Solution: Ignore the error and use the first instance to access the IP/MAC Address Management functions.

Problem (version 9 and earlier): any of these tabs -> Ping, Traceroute, NetScanner, NetBIOS, Database Tests, or Batch Resolver shows only a blank results area. There are no apparent columns and no results.

Solution: Press the Autosize button.

Problem (version 9 and earlier): Port Probe is missing ports you know are there on the target machine. This affects Windows 95/98/ME users ONLY.

Solution: Upgrade to the latest service pack AND set the probe delay setting to at least 60ms. (Port probe exceeds the capabilities of the winsock found on 95/98/ME, NT/2000 users are NOT affected.)

Security Issue: When using NetScanTools Pro 200x, it sends an HTTP GET What's New Web Page message to the www.nwpsw.com website.

NetScanTools and versions 1-8 of NetScanTools Pro have a means of getting the latest news from our website. This is done when you first click on the "What's New at NWPSW Web Site" tab after starting NetScanTools. Subsequent clicks do not request the file until the program is restarted. NetScanTools requests a small text "whatsnew.html" file from the web site. This is done using this standard HTTP protocol request:

GET whatsnew.html HTTP/1.0\r\n
User-Agent: NetScanTools-32 Bit\r\n
Host: unknown\r\n
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*\r\n

www.nwpsw.com responds with the web page and it is displayed as text on the What's New tab of NetScanTools.

If you do not wish NetScanTools to request the whatsnew.html file, do not click on the What's New tab.

Problem: NetScanTools Pro 200x will not start on Windows 95. There is an error message about being unable to locate ws2_32.dll. This may also occur during installation. We do not recommend using NetScanTools Pro on Windows 95. We do not recommend using Windows 95.

Solution: You do not have Winsock 2 on your system, please download and install the newest Winsock 2 update for Windows 95.

Problem: (Windows 95 previously updated to Winsock 2 ONLY) NetScanTools Pro 200x does not resolve hostnames to IP addresses for most tabs like ping, traceroute, whois etc. Further symptoms are that other internet programs like web browsers, mail readers, ftp all work fine and you are NOT using a firewall. This seems to affect multihomed systems. We do not recommend using NetScanTools Pro on Windows 95.

Solution: check this file in your windows folder: vnbt.386 version 4.10.1658 dated 03/20/98 6:00pm 87,765 bytes. If this file is not this version, please download and install the newest Winsock 2 update for Windows 95. There has been more than one Winsock 2 update released.

There is no additional support available for these old versions other than what is contained on this page and on the common issues page. Upgrade to the latest version here.