Looking to a tool to draw network and hardware connections

Question

I need to explain parts of our network and hardware to a supplier, and I would like to draw a diagram with the different servers, routers and devices and the way the ports of each of those devices are connected.

All software I've checked so far is meant to draw diagrams of how devices are connected together (based on one link device-to-device) but not how ports are connected together. They also mostly have general images representing a computer, a server, a database, etc... whereas I just want a box with X ports.

Basically I'm lookin for a tool which:

• lets me draw a map of devices (servers, switches, routers, etc...) with ports (ethernet, fibre channel, serial, etc...) and connect them together
• lets me add some labels and text to this map
• keeps the links "connected" (as in moving the device will move ports and links together)
• is free (as I only need to use it once)
• has a low learning curve (again, I only need it once)

Does anyone know of such a tool? Thanks!

Edit: User root was so kind as to suggest using Visio, but that is not an option for me. I've tried Visio in the past. You can indeed create a network diagram for devices, but not for ports. You could connect up routers, switches and the like, but I need(ed) a tool to create a map of all ports, which is not possible in Visio as far as I can tell. Furthermore, I hate Visio with a passion, because it has a tendency to move around connections on it's own while you place them or after you placed them, which is incredibly annoying. The tool should leave alone all connections unless you're actively moving connected nodes.

Answer 1

You may be able to find your answer in this question from this same SE. Two of the answers specify that the software is free, while the third does not state either way. Depending on your desired result, one of them should supply the solution you seek.

10 strike software 30 day free trial.

yEd graph software free software, multi-platform

networkmaps 3d open source program

Answer 2

You might find it worth taking a look at Scapy which is a python based network tool that describes itself as "Packet crafting for Python2 and Python3".

In conjunction with some other open source tools it can explore your network and automatically generate such diagrams for you. You might even find some nodes & connections that you didn't know that you had or that shouldn't be there.

Software that scapy can optionally work with:

• matplotlib - Plotting
• PyX (also requires LaTeX) - 2D Graphics
• Graphviz & ImageMagick - Network Graphs, etc.
• VPyhont-Jupyter - 3D Graphics
• Cryptography - WEP Decriptions, PKI & TLS
• Nmap - Fingerprinting
• SoX - VOIP

With scapy you can quickly find all of the open ports on all of the IP addresses in your local network then graph the results. It will take some reading and some experimentation but once you have got it you can repeat at any time to automatically regenerate your graph.

• Free
• Cross Platform

Answer 3

It seems that Microsoft Visio can do that:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-basic-network-diagram-f2020ce6-c20f-4342-84f7-bf4e7488843a
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-detailed-network-diagram-in-visio-linked-to-external-data-495cd74f-0eae-497a-b020-ed0824f4d9d3

and that the first month is free.