Hostname Visibility

Gaining Network Intelligence Just Got Easier

Netify’s hostname reports provide valuable network intelligence by showing you what users or devices – such as laptops, smartphones and routers – are doing on your network and how often.

Using the Netify deep packet inspection, we extract hostnames from the following network protocols:

• DNS
• mDNS
• HTTPS / SNI
• HTTP
• QUIC
• DHCP
• NTP
• and more

Hostnames are used to map human readable names with numeric IP address, like 35.182.7.172, which are then used by machines to connect to each other to exchange data. Almost all traffic flows on your network start with a hostname lookup to an authoritative server that converts names into IP addresses.

Netify captures each of these hostname lookups as their own separate traffic flows and then uses them to provide metrics that show what’s happening on your network. Hostnames and domains are matched to Netify’s website and application database. This makes it simple to create alerts and run reports to match specific inquiries - a good first step in lowering your cybersecurity risk or monitoring employee behavior online.