In older versions of Nmap, which flag was used to disable host discovery?

In older versions of Nmap, which flag was used to disable host discovery?

• A. -Pn
• B. -P0
• C. -f
• D. -v

Answer: (B)

Disabling host discovery means telling Nmap not to check if targets are online before scanning. In older Nmap versions, the flag used to do this is -P0. It skips the usual live-host checks (like ICMP pings or ARP probes) and goes straight to probing ports as if the hosts were up. This can speed up scans or be necessary when discovery probes are blocked, but it can also lead to misleading results for hosts that are down or filtered. The modern equivalent is -Pn, but -P0 is the older option that accomplishes the same goal. Options like -f (packet fragmentation) or -v (verbose) don’t control host discovery.

Disabling host discovery means telling Nmap not to check if targets are online before scanning. In older Nmap versions, the flag used to do this is -P0. It skips the usual live-host checks (like ICMP pings or ARP probes) and goes straight to probing ports as if the hosts were up. This can speed up scans or be necessary when discovery probes are blocked, but it can also lead to misleading results for hosts that are down or filtered. The modern equivalent is -Pn, but -P0 is the older option that accomplishes the same goal. Options like -f (packet fragmentation) or -v (verbose) don’t control host discovery.