**Whoâs on my network?**
(#WatchYourLAN)
If you read this on fediverse and the layout is off, hereâs the link to the original blog post with a nice text & pictures layout.
The problem:
Iâm just curious what is connected to my home network, because itâs over 30 devices. Some have static IPs, some dynamic. I donât recognize devices by their IPs anymore.
The solution
There are many solutions to this. The most obvious solution is not being paranoid about it, so no tool is needed.
Then, I could edit the ARP table on my ISP modem. But because itâs not my device, I donât like to edit it too much.
The second possible solution is to edit/rename client list on #PiHole and give meaningful names to IPs. I tried once but I forgot why I didnât like the solution.
Now I found out about #WatchYourLan tool. I installed it and after few days, it seems quite nice.
The process:
WatchYourLan needs Docker to run(update: not necessariy, see comments below). I have âonlyâ Proxmox running in my homelab and I wanted to use it also for this server. So I installed Docker in LXC on Proxmox. Which is kind of stupid. A container within container. The usual way is to install the #Docker in #Proxmoxâs VM. But I donât want to dedicate the whole VM to this âsimpleâ task.
Install Docker in Proxmoxâs LXCI just followed this fine video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDR_1opHGNQ
To sum it up, just create a new #LXC, go to Options/Features, check keyctl on, nesting on. Why? I have no idea, Iâm just following some random internet instructions.
I used Ubuntu server as a template when creating LXC, so the instructions in the video above are not quite right (theyâre for Debian). So I followed the following instructions to install the Docker in Ubuntu LXC:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu
2. I added Portainer, just for the sake of it. And to run/stop WatchYourLan, because I always forget command line commands to do it.
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce:2.21.03. Install WatchYourLan
https://hub.docker.com/r/aceberg/watchyourlan
I wanted to install it using Portainer, but I didnât know how, so I just used commad line to start it up:
docker run --name WatchYourLan -e "IFACES=eth0" -e "TZ=Europe/Amsterdam" --network="host" -v $DOCKERDATAPATH/wyl:/data/WatchYourLAN aceberg/watchyourlan:v2 After that, Portainer sees it and I can control it via Portainerâs web UI.
WatchYourLan is accesible at the adress: localhost:8840.
Then I set names to all devices. It took me quite some time to sort out 40 devices.
4. It is really a low-resource tool:
5. But what can I do with it?
The most useful thing this tool provides is the following:
This image is an overview of the connection dropouts (green-online, grey-offline). For the first time I saw my FireHD tablet frequently drops the connection, which is probably the reason why it doesnât wake up always when Home Assistant sends it a command to wake the screen up.
6. Lastly, I added it to Home Assistant via Proxmox integration:
Key takeaways
WatchYourLan is a perfect tool if youâre paranoid and want to know who is on you network.
https://blog.rozman.info/whos-on-my-network/
#Docker #LXC #PiHole #Proxmox #WatchYourLan