NetPulsar

Real-time network utilization monitoring tool.

Overview

NetPulsar is a real-time network utilization monitoring tool. Desktop App. It provides comprehensive insights into your network's activity, enabling users to monitor traffic, manage connections, and view network configurations with ease.

Features

• Real-time Monitoring: Track network utilization as it happens.
• Connection Management: Analyze active connections quickly and effectively.
• Interface and Routing Insights: Get detailed views of network interfaces and routing tables.

Prerequisites

• Ensure you have a compatible operating system (Linux, macOS, Windows).

Installation

Using Installer

Download the installer for your platform from the releases page.

Build from source

First, clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/shellrow/netpulsar

Then, build the project (assuming Rust and Tauri are already installed):

cd netpulsar
cargo tauri build

Run the installer in the dist directory.

Post-Install Configuration

The following post-install configuration steps are applicable to both the CLI version (netpulsar) and the desktop application (netpulsar).
These steps ensure that netpulsar has the necessary permissions and environment setup to function correctly on different operating systems.

Post-Install (Linux)

netpulsar requires elevated privileges to monitor network packets effectively. On Linux, you can configure these privileges using two main methods:

1. Using setcap

Granting capabilities to the netpulsar binary allows it to operate with the necessary privileges without requiring sudo for each execution.
This method is recommended for single-user machines or in environments where all users are trusted.

Assign necessary capabilities to the netpulsar binary

sudo setcap 'cap_sys_ptrace,cap_dac_read_search,cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+ep' $(command -v netpulsar)

Run netpulsar as an unprivileged user:

netpulsar

Capabilities Explained:

• cap_sys_ptrace,cap_dac_read_search: Allows netpulsar to access /proc/<pid>/fd/ to identify which open port belongs to which process.
• cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin: Enables packet capturing capabilities.

2. Using sudo (for multi-user environments)

For environments with multiple users, requiring privilege escalation each time netpulsar is run can enhance security.

sudo netpulsar

Post-Install (macOS)

On macOS, managing access to the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) devices is necessary for netpulsar to monitor network traffic:

Install chmod-bpf to automatically manage permissions for BPF devices:

Install prebuilt binaries via shell script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/shellrow/chmod-bpf/releases/latest/download/chmod-bpf-installer.sh | sh

Install prebuilt binaries via Homebrew

brew install shellrow/tap-chmod-bpf/chmod-bpf

Check BPF device permissions

chmod-bpf check

Install the chmod-bpf daemon to automatically manage BPF device permissions

sudo chmod-bpf install

macOS Security

After installing netpulsar Desktop on macOS, you may encounter a security warning that prevents the app from opening, stating that it is from an unidentified developer. This is a common macOS security measure for apps downloaded outside of the App Store.

To resolve this issue and open netpulsar Desktop, you can remove the security attributes that macOS assigns to the application using the following command in the Terminal:

xattr -rc "/Applications/NetPulsar.app"

Post-Install (Windows)

• Ensure that you have Npcap installed, which is necessary for packet capturing on Windows
• Download and install Npcap from Npcap. Choose the "Install Npcap in WinPcap API-compatible Mode" during installation.

License

netpulsar is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.