GUESSNET-SCAN(8)

📦 version 0.58build2, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

👑 guessnet-scan — the manual page, but make it cute

okay bestie, welcome to guessnet-scan, a page from the System Manager's Manual, section 8. she's a little detective program and honestly? she ate.

✨ NAME ✨

guessnet-scan — guess network configuration data by looking at network traffic 🔍

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

guessnet-scan [options] [ethernet_interface]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options optional, interface optional, chaos guaranteed 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically guessnet-scan tries to deduce network configuration data by watching network traffic at a given Ethernet interface. she's just standing there. observing. taking notes. iconic behavior honestly 🌈

after scanning network traffic for some time, guessnet-scan prints a configuration string suitable for inclusion in /etc/network/interfaces. like she's handing you a little handwritten note you can paste directly into your config. 🎀

⚠️ but listen — guessnet-scan uses heuristics and wild guesses and the resulting data is not guaranteed to be accurate. she is literally guessing. lovingly. confidently. but guessing.

the program is intended to be used as a first try at getting network configuration data without bothering anyone. no sysadmin was harmed in the making of this config file 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

options follow the usual GNU conventions, as a treat ✨

  • --debug — print debugging messages. she will narrate her inner monologue 🗣️
  • --help — show a brief summary of commandline options. the classic cry for help, but helpful 📋
  • --init-time=int — time in seconds to wait for the interface to initialize when it is not found already up at program startup. default: 3 seconds. ⏳
  • -t, --timeout=int — time in seconds to watch for network traffic. default: 5 seconds. 👀
  • -v, --verbose — operate verbosely. she's a talker 💬
  • --version — show the version number of the program. 🏷️

🧚 SCANNING REQUIREMENTS 🧚

to correctly identify all data of the local network, guessnet-scan needs to see traffic related to a host in the local network and to the local gateway, if any. two data points minimum bestie, she's not a mind reader (she's a traffic reader, different thing) 🍓

to be able to identify the network gateway, guessnet-scan also needs to see some traffic directed to the external network. so you can help the detection by generating some outbound IP traffic during the scan, for example by:

  • browsing a web page (without proxy — no proxy, she said what she said 🙈)
  • using telnet to open a connection to some remote host
💀 and now for the sad part: if you are connected to a switch, guessnet-scan won't probably be able to work, since the switch will isolate it from the network traffic that the other machines are generating. the switch is gatekeeping. literally gatekeeping. 😭

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read those too, iykyk 📚

💜 AUTHOR 💜

guessnet-scan was written by Enrico Zini <enrico@debian.org>. thank you king 👑

and that's the whole page!! this little beauty comes to you from the System Manager's Manual, dated 10 October 2004 — yes she's vintage, yes she still serves, no cap ✨💖

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