netview 🧙‍♂️

A quick little terminal tool that lists every device on your local network with its addresses, MAC, manufacturer and hostname.

 _   _  _____  _____ __     __ ___  _____ __        __
| \ | || ____||_   _|\ \   / /|_ _|| ____|\ \      / /
|  \| ||  _|    | |   \ \ / /  | | |  _|   \ \ /\ / /
| |\  || |___   | |    \ V /   | | | |___   \ V  V /
|_| \_||_____|  |_|     \_/   |___||_____|   \_/\_/

+-----+-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+----------------+------------+
|   # | IP Address      | MAC Address       | Vendor                | Hostname           | Type           | Last Seen  |
+-----+-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+----------------+------------+
|   1 | 192.168.1.254   | 08:c7:f5:ed:0f:f9 | Vantiva Connected Ho  | -                  | Gateway        | active now |
|   2 | 192.168.1.91    | 00:1f:54:52:aa:c8 | Lorex Technology      | ND012009243454     | Camera / NVR   | active now |
|   3 | 192.168.1.92    | 08:8f:c3:91:e0:0b | Compal Information    | Android            | Android device | active now |
|   4 | 192.168.1.146   | 1e:d7:49:4d:7f:46 | Randomized MAC        | -                  | Apple device   | active now |
+-----+-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+----------------+------------+

Install

pip install -r requirements.txt

Or install the package so the netview command lands on your PATH:

pip install -e ".[full]"

Only rich and psutil are required. scapy and mac-vendor-lookup are optional and netview falls back cleanly when they are missing!

Usage

python -m netview

Flag	What it does
-r, --range 192.168.1.0/24	Sweep a specific subnet instead of the detected one
-i, --interface "Wi-Fi"	Pick the interface for the layer 2 sweep
-t, --timeout 3.0	Seconds to listen for hostname replies
-o, --output path.txt	Where to write the text report (default netview_report.txt)
--json out.json	Also write a JSON report with every field
--csv out.csv	Also write a CSV report
--no-file	Skip the text report
--no-ports	Skip the TCP port probe, which is on by default
--port-list 80,443,22	Ports to probe instead of the defaults
--all	Include devices from history that did not answer this scan
--no-arp	Skip the scapy layer 2 sweep
--no-resolve	Skip hostname resolution
--no-history	Do not read or write the history file
--offline	Never download the OUI database
--no-color	Plain output
--update-vendors	Refresh the OUI database and exit
--doctor	Print capability diagnostics and exit

Data locations

Platform	Directory
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\netview
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/netview
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/netview or ~/.local/share/netview

These directories hold oui.csv and history.json

Enabling the layer 2 sweep

Run python -m netview --doctor to see whether it is available. It needs both a packet capture driver and elevated rights:

• Windows: install Npcap and run from an administrator terminal
• Linux: sudo python -m netview, or grant cap_net_raw to the interpreter
• macOS: sudo python -m netview

Without it netview still works through the UDP sweep, which finds the same devices and needs no privileges at all.

Notes

This project was made for educational purposes and to learn more about networking. Only scan networks you are responsible for.