NetTrack

Prototype for a "friend doorbell", dispatching push notifications when known devices connect to the local network.

Process

NetTrack is a thin wrapper over a couple shell commands.

pings the broadcast ip for the current subnet: ping -c 1 192.168.1.255
checks the arp cache: arp -a
Diffs the arp table results against the last check of the arp table, filtering out incomplete/blacklisted devices.
Sends notifications for any new arrivals.

Running NetTrack

...with docker:

NetTrack is available in docker. Access to the host network is required.

docker pull matthewoden/net_track:latest

See the provided ./docker-compose.yml file for an example docker configuration.

...as an elixir release:

The elixir release can be run without docker, if desired.

MIX_ENV=prod mix release

# using the default release location:
_build/prod/rel/net_track/bin/net_track migrate
_build/prod/rel/net_track/bin/net_track foreground

Configuration

Database

NetTrack uses Postgres for blacklist/activity persistance, and expects the database and user to exist on the postgres instance prior to deployment.

IFTTT (Push notifications)

NetTrack uses ifttt.com for push notifications. You'll need an IFTTT account, and enable the following services:

Make note of your webhook key, as we'll use that later.

Environment

The following environment variables can be used to configure your NetTrack instance

required:

NETTRACK_DB_USER #your postgres user
NETTRACK_DB_PASSWORD #your postgres password
NETTRACK_DB_DATABASE #your postgres database
NETTRACK_DB_HOST #your postgres host
IFTTT_WEBHOOK_KEY #your IFTTT webhook token

optional:

NETTRACK_DB_PORT #your postgres port, defaults to 5432

TODO:

add debounce period for disconnects within a set period
add UI layer for adding nicknames, blacklists
add option to use sqlite for persistance
add option to not send notifications if certain devices are absent
add option to take a list of IFTTT endpoints for notifications
add API layer to enable hooks into homebridge

matthewoden/NetTrack