Network Discovery MVP

A Flask + Socket.IO dashboard that discovers devices on your local network and visualizes them in real-time with Cytoscape.

Features

• Real network scan using python-nmap (fallback to ping)
• Device type inference (router, computer, mobile, hotspot, printer, media, IoT, NAS, virtual)
• Real-time updates via WebSockets
• Auto-scan with interval and countdown
• Graceful scan stop support
• JSON API: GET /api/devices

Requirements

• Python 3.13 (use provided network-discovery-mvp venv) or Python 3.9+
• Optional: nmap binary installed on your system for advanced scanning

Setup

# Option 1: Use provided venv (Windows PowerShell)
# In repo root
./network-discovery-mvp/Scripts/Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Option 2: Your own venv
python -m venv .venv
. .venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run

# Start the app (use app_clean.py)
python app_clean.py
# Open http://127.0.0.1:5000

If python-nmap is installed and the nmap binary is available, the scanner will use nmap for discovery; otherwise it falls back to parallel ping.

Frontend controls

• Start Scan: triggers a one-off scan
• Auto-Scan: toggles recurring scans at the configured interval (30–3600s)
• Clear: resets the visualization and stats

API

• GET /api/devices → { devices: { [ip]: {...} }, timestamp }

Notes

• On Windows, run terminal as Administrator to improve ARP/MAC detection with nmap.
• Firewalls can block ICMP; results may vary depending on your network.

License

MIT