Why does it find computers the ping sweep missed?

Different question. A sweep asks 'who answers ping'; SMB enumeration asks 'who is talking Windows networking'. A host can do one and not the other, which is exactly why running both tools pays off.

Can it tell me who can open a share?

It goes further: it records whether the account it runs under could read or write each share. Run it as a regular user and the report becomes an exposure audit without you touching anything.

Is there a report I can hand to someone?

It exports HTML reports that open in any browser — considerably easier to email than a screenshot of a table.

Watch entry 04 · tool log

LizardSystems Network Scanner: the share detector

Ping sweeps stop at the door. This one opens it: computers, printers and shared folders enumerated over SMB, with the permissions each share actually enforces when an ordinary account knocks.

LizardSystems Network Scanner results view — The LAN as SMB sees it: machines, then what each one shares.

The evening it earned its keep

Seventeen devices on the sweep; fourteen answered SMB. Under those fourteen sat a printer nobody remembered sharing, and next to it a folder set to Everyone → Full Control sometime during a Windows upgrade two years prior. No drama, no breach — just a door standing open in a hallway nobody walks. Closed in ten seconds once seen.

Running it usefully

Run as a standard user, not admin. The report then shows what any colleague could reach, which is the question that matters.
Let it finish. Share enumeration is slower than pinging; interrupting it leaves the tree half-built and the report misleading.
Export the HTML report before closing. It opens anywhere and reads better than a screenshot ever will.

Reading the permission column

For each share the scanner records whether your account could read and whether it could write. A share you can write to as a regular user is either intentional or forgotten, and on small networks it is forgotten far more often than anyone admits. That column is the reason to run this tool even when the sweep already told you the device count.

Cross-platform note. Linux boxes and NAS units that speak Samba appear in the results fine. The scanner itself runs on Windows only — plan which machine drives the audit before you start.

Adding a scan range expression — Range expressions cover the case of a router that splits the subnet.

Free edition and the cap

The free build limits how many computers a scan returns. A flat with a laptop, a NAS and a printer may never meet the limit; a small office will, usually during the first serious audit — which is also the moment the licence becomes obviously worth it. The vendor's page carries the current numbers and a time-limited trial of the full product.

Download Network Scanner free edition + paid licence · Windows

Vendor page: lizardsystems.com/network-scanner.