Notes about masscan

Understanding transmit rate:

• Your network stack sometimes needs to be tuned. Virtualized environments can limit speeds to 10,000 packets-per-second. Normal Linux often gives only 300,000 packets-per-second. Well-tuned Linux gives 1,000,000 packets-per-second. Specialized network drivers like PF_RING are needed to go faster, in order to achieve 10,000,000 packets-per-second.
• If you aren't getting the results expected, it's because masscan is sending packets faster than the network can handle. The tool stresses not only raw network bandwidth, but also the ability of devices to forward packets-per-second, as well as routers to handle new routes-per-second.

Some parameters:

• <IP target>
• --ports <ports-to-scan>
• --rate <pkts/sec>