Common questions about installing collectors, alerts, data privacy, and billing.
Sign in to the portal, go to Collectors, and copy your personalized install command. Paste it into a terminal on any machine on your network and the collector installs and registers automatically. Step-by-step instructions are on the Collector Install Guide.
One per network segment is the general rule. If all your devices share the same subnet, one collector is enough. For multiple VLANs, you have two options: deploy one collector on a machine inside each VLAN, or install a single collector on a machine that has access to all VLANs — such as a router, firewall, or a host connected to a trunk port. The single multi-VLAN machine approach is simpler when it's available.
Yes. The collector is a single lightweight binary that runs on Linux (amd64, arm64, armv7), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), and Windows. It uses minimal CPU and memory. A Raspberry Pi 3 or later, a NAS running Linux, or any always-on VM are all supported platforms.
Nodes discovered by that collector will show as offline in the portal. If you have availability alerts configured, they will fire. Historical data and inventory are preserved. Once the collector comes back online it resumes reporting and node statuses update automatically.
Run the following commands for your platform:
Linux
sudo systemctl stop lancarta-collector
sudo systemctl disable lancarta-collector
sudo rm /usr/bin/lancarta-collector
sudo rm -rf /etc/lancarta-collector
sudo rm -f /lib/systemd/system/lancarta-collector.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reloadmacOS
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.lancarta-collector.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.lancarta-collector.plist
rm /usr/local/bin/lancarta-collector
rm -rf ~/.config/lancarta-collectorWindows (PowerShell, run as Administrator)
Unregister-ScheduledTask -TaskName "LANcartaCollector" -Confirm:$false
Remove-Item -Recurse "C:\Program Files\LANcarta Collector"You should also revoke the collector in the portal under Collectors to remove it from your inventory.
Yes, though it's generally not necessary unless you have a specific reason — such as redundancy or covering multiple VLANs from separate machines. If you do run more than one collector per segment, the portal merges their results: a node seen by multiple collectors appears once in your inventory, with ping results from each collector shown side by side. For VLAN coverage, a single collector on a machine with multi-VLAN access is usually simpler than one collector per VLAN.
No inbound ports are required on the machine running the collector. The collector only makes outbound HTTPS connections on port 443. As long as the host can reach the internet over TCP port 443, the collector will connect without any firewall changes.
Yes. Deploy one collector on each VLAN you want to monitor. Each collector can see the nodes on its local segment. The portal aggregates all collectors under a single network, giving you visibility across every VLAN from one place.
Yes, as long as you can install a collector on a machine inside that network. Once the collector is running it will discover and report nodes on that segment. You can invite team members to a network so a remote admin can manage their own collector while you maintain visibility.
LANcarta can notify you when:
Alerts are configured per node or per subnet in the portal. Notifications are delivered by email.
LANcarta collects network inventory data: IP addresses, MAC addresses, hostnames, open ports, SNMP system information (device name, description, location, contact), and availability ping results (latency and packet loss). It does not capture packet contents, inspect traffic payloads, read application data, or perform deep packet inspection of any kind.
All data is stored on LANcarta's cloud infrastructure in the United States. Data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2/1.3).
Retention depends on your plan: 30 days on the Free plan, 90 days on Small Business, and 365 days on IT Professional. Older data is automatically purged on a rolling basis.
When you delete your account, all data associated with it — nodes, collectors, networks, and history — is permanently deleted immediately. There is no recovery after deletion, so export anything you need before closing your account.
No. The collector uses ARP scanning, ICMP ping, and SNMP polling to discover and monitor nodes. It does not capture packets, tap traffic flows, read application data, or inspect the contents of any network communication.
No. The Free plan requires no credit card. You only need a payment method when upgrading to a paid plan.
Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period so you keep the higher-tier features until the period closes.
LANcarta enforces limits at the plan boundary. If you reach your network or collector limit you will be prompted to upgrade. Existing data is never deleted due to a limit being reached — you simply cannot add more until you upgrade or remove something.
Not currently. LANcarta is a cloud-hosted SaaS. The collector runs entirely on your network and only sends inventory and availability data outbound — no traffic content leaves your network.
Not yet. The portal is a responsive web app that works on mobile browsers. A dedicated mobile app is on the roadmap.
Not currently. LANcarta polls devices via SNMP on a scheduled interval. Trap-based alerting (where the device pushes events to LANcarta) is planned for a future release.
A documented public API is on the roadmap. If you have a specific integration need, contact us at [email protected].
Still have a question? Email us at [email protected]
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