network-pinger 2.1.4

Async network monitoring tool with real-time terminal UI, alerts, and connection quality analysis

Pinger — Network Monitor

Async network monitoring tool with real-time terminal UI, alerts, and connection quality analysis.

Supports Russian and English localization — switch via CURRENT_LANGUAGE in config.py.

Features

• Ping monitoring — latency tracking, packet loss detection, jitter calculation
• Real-time TUI — Rich-based dashboard with sparkline charts, Unicode progress bars, color-coded status
• Smart alerts — sound + visual notifications with threshold hysteresis (packet loss, latency, jitter, connection lost)
• Public IP monitoring — change detection with geo info
• DNS monitoring — resolution speed checks with multiple record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS), benchmark tests (Cached/Uncached/DotCom) with statistics (min/avg/max/σ)
• MTU / TTL monitoring — path MTU discovery, fragmentation detection
• Auto traceroute — triggered on connection problems, saved to traceroutes/
• Problem analysis — automatic ISP/local/DNS/MTU problem classification, pattern detection, prediction
• Route analysis — traceroute-based hop analysis, route change detection
• Hop health monitoring — automatic hop discovery via traceroute, periodic ping of each intermediate hop, full traceroute-style table with min/avg/last latency and loss per hop
• Prometheus metrics — /metrics endpoint for scraping
• Health endpoint — /health and /ready for Kubernetes probes
• Docker & Helm — ready for containerized deployment

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Windows / Linux / macOS
• System commands: ping, traceroute (or tracert on Windows)

Installation

Quick Install (pipx — recommended for end users)

# Install pipx if you don't have it
pip install pipx
pipx ensurepath

# Install from PyPI (when published) or local directory
pipx install network-pinger
# or for local development:
pipx install .

# Run anywhere
pinger

Upgrading (pipx)

# Check for updates and upgrade
pipx upgrade network-pinger

Development Install (Poetry)

# Install Poetry if you don't have it
pip install poetry

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/meshlg/_pinger.git
cd _pinger
poetry install

# Run in Poetry environment
poetry run pinger
# or activate shell
poetry shell
pinger

Traditional Install (pip)

pip install -r requirements.txt
python pinger.py

Dependencies

Package	Purpose
rich>=13.0.0	Terminal UI (panels, tables, live display)
requests>=2.25.0	Public IP info via ip-api.com
pythonping>=1.1.0	Fallback ping when system ping is unavailable
prometheus_client>=0.16.0	Prometheus metrics export (optional)
dnspython>=2.4.0	Advanced DNS queries (multiple record types)

Building & Publishing (Poetry)

# Build distributable package (wheel + source)
poetry build

# Publish to PyPI (configure token first)
poetry publish

Press Ctrl+C for graceful shutdown.

Configuration

All settings are in config.py:

Core

CURRENT_LANGUAGE = "ru"         # "ru" or "en"
TARGET_IP = "8.8.8.8"          # Ping target
INTERVAL = 1                    # Ping interval (seconds)
WINDOW_SIZE = 1800              # Stats window (30 min)
LATENCY_WINDOW = 600            # Latency history (10 min)

Thresholds & Alerts

PACKET_LOSS_THRESHOLD = 5.0     # Packet loss (%)
AVG_LATENCY_THRESHOLD = 100     # Average latency (ms)
JITTER_THRESHOLD = 30           # Jitter (ms)
CONSECUTIVE_LOSS_THRESHOLD = 5  # Consecutive lost packets

ENABLE_SOUND_ALERTS = True
ALERT_COOLDOWN = 5              # Min interval between sounds (seconds)

IP Monitoring

ENABLE_IP_CHANGE_ALERT = True
IP_CHECK_INTERVAL = 15          # Seconds

DNS Monitoring

ENABLE_DNS_MONITORING = True
DNS_TEST_DOMAIN = "cloudflare.com"
DNS_CHECK_INTERVAL = 10
DNS_SLOW_THRESHOLD = 100        # "Slow" DNS threshold (ms)
DNS_RECORD_TYPES = ["A", "AAAA", "CNAME", "MX", "TXT", "NS"]  # Record types to test

# DNS Benchmark tests (Cached/Uncached/DotCom)
ENABLE_DNS_BENCHMARK = True
DNS_BENCHMARK_DOTCOM_DOMAIN = "cloudflare.com"  # Domain for DotCom test
DNS_BENCHMARK_SERVERS = ["system"]  # "system" uses system resolver, or list IPs: ["1.1.1.1", "8.8.8.8"]
DNS_BENCHMARK_HISTORY_SIZE = 50  # Number of queries to keep for statistics

Monitors multiple DNS record types simultaneously using dnspython. Displays per-record-type status in the UI.

DNS Benchmark Tests:

• Cached — measures DNS response from cache (second query to same domain)
• Uncached — measures full recursive resolution time (unique random domain)
• DotCom — measures response time for popular .com domain

UI display (compact single-line with aggregate stats):

C:12  U:45  D:25  │ 15q avg:27 σ:3ms

Color-coded: green (fast), yellow (slow), red (failed). Statistics accumulate over time (min/avg/max/σ/reliability).

Multi-Server Support: Configure multiple DNS servers to compare performance:

DNS_BENCHMARK_SERVERS = ["1.1.1.1", "8.8.8.8", "9.9.9.9"]

MTU Monitoring

ENABLE_MTU_MONITORING = True
MTU_CHECK_INTERVAL = 30
MTU_ISSUE_CONSECUTIVE = 3       # Checks to confirm MTU issue
MTU_CLEAR_CONSECUTIVE = 2       # Checks to clear MTU issue

Traceroute

ENABLE_AUTO_TRACEROUTE = True
TRACEROUTE_TRIGGER_LOSSES = 3   # Trigger after N consecutive losses
TRACEROUTE_COOLDOWN = 60        # Min interval (seconds)
TRACEROUTE_MAX_HOPS = 15

Problem & Route Analysis

ENABLE_PROBLEM_ANALYSIS = True
PROBLEM_ANALYSIS_INTERVAL = 60

ENABLE_ROUTE_ANALYSIS = True
ROUTE_ANALYSIS_INTERVAL = 300
ROUTE_CHANGE_CONSECUTIVE = 2    # Detections to confirm change

Hop Health Monitoring

ENABLE_HOP_MONITORING = True
HOP_PING_INTERVAL = 1          # Seconds between ping cycles (all hops pinged in parallel)
HOP_PING_TIMEOUT = 0.5         # Timeout per hop ping (seconds) - 500ms recommended
HOP_REDISCOVER_INTERVAL = 600  # Seconds between automatic route re-discovery
HOP_LATENCY_GOOD = 50          # Green threshold (ms)
HOP_LATENCY_WARN = 100         # Yellow threshold (ms), above = red

Logging

LOG_FILE = "ping_monitor.log"
LOG_LEVEL = "INFO"
LOG_TRUNCATE_ON_START = True    # Clear log on each start

Metrics & Health

ENABLE_METRICS = True
METRICS_PORT = 8000

ENABLE_HEALTH_ENDPOINT = True
HEALTH_PORT = 8001

Interface

The dashboard is split into a header, status bar, 3-row body, and footer:

┌─────────────── Network Monitor → 8.8.8.8 │ 10:35:21 ───────────────┐
╔══ ● CONNECTED │ Ping: 12.3ms │ Loss: 0.0% │ Uptime: 2h 15m ══════╗
┌─ LATENCY ───────────────┐  ┌─ STATISTICS ─────────────┐
│ Current/Best/Avg/Peak  │  │ Sent/OK/Lost + bars      │
│ Sparkline chart ▁▂▃▅▃▂ │  │ ██████████████████░░ 99.9% │
└────────────────────────┘  └──────────────────────────┘
┌─ ANALYSIS ─────────────┐  ┌─ MONITORING ─────────────┐
│ ─── Problems ────────  │  │ ─── DNS ───────────────  │
│ Type/Prediction/Pattern│  │ A✓ AAAA✓ MX✓ TXT✓ NS✓   │
│ ─── Route ───────────  │  │ C:12  U:45  D:25  │ 15q  │
│ Status/Hops/Changes    │  │ ─── Network ─────────── │
└────────────────────────┘  │ TTL/MTU/Traceroute      │
                            │ ─── Notifications ───── │
                            │ No alerts.              │
                            └──────────────────────────┘
┌─ HOP HEALTH ───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  #   Min       Avg       Last      Loss    Host              │
│  1   14 ms     14 ms     13 ms     0.0%    10.0.0.1          │
│  2   14 ms     14 ms     14 ms     0.0%    69.30.89.2        │
│  3   15 ms     14 ms     14 ms     0.0%    hostname [1.2.3.4]│
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Status bar — instant connection state (CONNECTED / DEGRADED / DISCONNECTED) with key metrics
• Latency panel — current/best/avg/peak/median/jitter + sparkline chart
• Statistics panel — packet counters + Unicode progress bars for success rate and 30-min loss
• Analysis panel — problem type, prediction, pattern + route analysis (with section dividers)
• Monitoring panel — DNS records, benchmark (C/U/D), network metrics, notifications (with section dividers)
• Hop Health panel — full-width traceroute-style table with color-coded latency per hop

Docker

Build & Run

docker compose up -d

Services

Service	Port	Description
pinger	8000	Prometheus metrics
pinger	8001	Health endpoints (/health, /ready)
prometheus	9090	Prometheus UI

Volumes

Host path	Container path	Description
./logs	/app/logs	Log files
./traceroutes	/app/traceroutes	Traceroute output files

Kubernetes (Helm)

helm install pinger ./charts/pinger -f charts/pinger/values.yaml

See charts/pinger/README.md for details.

Project Structure

_pinger/
├── pinger.py                  # Entry point (dependency check + launch)
├── main.py                    # Async app runner (PingerApp)
├── config.py                  # Configuration, LANG dict, types
├── monitor.py                 # Main monitoring orchestrator
├── ui.py                      # Terminal UI (Rich)
├── alerts.py                  # Sound & visual alert system
├── stats_repository.py        # Thread-safe stats storage + snapshots
├── problem_analyzer.py        # Problem classification & prediction
├── route_analyzer.py          # Traceroute parsing & route analysis
├── requirements.txt           # Python dependencies
│
├── services/                  # Service layer
│   ├── ping_service.py        # System ping / pythonping fallback
│   ├── dns_service.py         # DNS resolution monitoring
│   ├── mtu_service.py         # MTU / Path MTU discovery
│   ├── ip_service.py          # Public IP + geo info
│   ├── traceroute_service.py  # Traceroute execution & file saving
│   └── hop_monitor_service.py # Hop discovery & per-hop ping monitoring
│
├── infrastructure/            # Infrastructure layer
│   ├── metrics.py             # Prometheus counters/gauges
│   └── health.py              # HTTP health server
│
├── pinger/                    # Bootstrap package
│   └── __init__.py            # Dependency checker
│
├── traceroutes/               # Traceroute output files (auto-created)
├── assets/                    # Screenshots and documentation images
├── charts/pinger/             # Helm chart
├── prometheus/                # Prometheus config
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
└── README.md

Localization

The app supports full Russian and English localization. All user-facing strings use the t("key") function from config.py.

To switch language:

# config.py
CURRENT_LANGUAGE = "en"  # or "ru"

License

MIT