Simple host scan with nmap

Sometimes it's useful to quickly scan for hosts in a given range. This is easily achieved with nmap.

1. RTFM: Host Discovery chapter in nmap book
2. Know which range I want to scan -- e.g., 192.168.5.0/24
3. Check which version of nmap I'm using:
   

   # # This is on a SLES 11-SP3 box
   # nmap --version
   
   Nmap version 4.75 ( http://nmap.org )
   
   # # This is on openSUSE 13.1
   # nmap --version
   
   Nmap version 6.40 ( http://nmap.org )
   Platform: x86_64-suse-linux-gnu
   [snip]
   

4. Run the command:
   

   # # on nmap version 4.75
   # nmap -sP 192.168.5.0/24
   ...wait for output...
   
   # # on nmap version 6.40
   # nmap -sn 192.168.5.0/24
   ...wait for output...