How it works...
Nmap performs layer 2 scanning by sending out ARP requests to the broadcast address for a series of IP addresses and identifies live hosts by flagging responses. However, because this functionality is already integrated into Nmap, it can be executed by simply providing the appropriate arguments.
Nmap performs layer 3 scanning by sending out ICMP echo requests for each IP address within the supplied range or text file. As Nmap is a multithreaded tool, multiple requests are sent out in parallel, and results are quickly returned to the user. As Nmap's discovery function is adaptive, it will only use ICMP discovery if ARP discovery cannot effectively locate the host on the local subnet. Alternatively, if neither ARP discovery ...
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