Demo mode — sample data for screenshots, demos and training

What it is: a switch that swaps your real data for a realistic sample network, so you can show the app to someone without showing them your actual network. Turn it on in View ▸ Demo mode, then restart — the change applies at startup, because every store binds to its folder once when the app launches.

You'll know it's on: the title bar reads "DEMO DATA — your real data is untouched".

When you'd use it:

• Screenshots — for a store listing, a blog post, or documentation, without leaking your public IP, ISP, hostnames or device names.
• Demos — show a colleague or a customer what the tools do without exposing their network or yours.
• Training — let someone learn the tools against a network that can't be broken.
• A dead network — on a plane or a bare VM, the app has something to show instead of empty panels.

How your real data is protected: with demo mode on, every store — inventory, incidents, MAC history, runbooks, hosts, the Vault, your license, the activity log — reads and writes a SEPARATE folder. The real one is never opened, so nothing in it can be changed, overwritten or lost. Turn demo mode off and restart, and everything comes back exactly as it was.

Real: %APPDATA%\SubnetSlinger\

Demo: %APPDATA%\SubnetSlinger\demo\

The sample network: a small office on 192.0.2.0/24 — a core gateway, an access switch, a workstation, a lobby printer, a 2nd-floor AP and a VPN concentrator, plus open incidents, MAC history and a Deputy investigation. Every address comes from the ranges RFC 5737 reserves for documentation (192.0.2.x, 198.51.100.x, 203.0.113.x), so nothing in a demo screenshot can ever point at a real host on the internet. The data is re-seeded fresh on each launch, so a demo always looks the same and anything you did last time is gone.

What it does NOT do: demo mode swaps your saved data, not your network card. Tools that probe live — IP info, Discovery, Topology, and a ping or trace you type a real target into — still talk to the real network and will show real results. So for screenshots, stick to the Dashboard and the saved-data screens, or point the live tools at the sample addresses. (Making the live tools honour demo mode too is on the list.)

Your license lives in the folder as well: activate a trial while demo mode is on and it's recorded on the demo side, so your real profile won't have it when you switch back — sign in again there. Deleting the demo folder is always safe; it's rebuilt on the next demo launch.