routermonitor

routermonitor logs/monitors DHCP clients (devices) managed by your dhcp server - either dd-wrt or pfSense. I use pfSense as my home dhcp server and find that over time that I've accumulated several devices on my network that I cannot readily identify. routermonitor watches the DHCP leases and tracks changes in a sqlite3 database. Any new client found on the network result in a text message notification.

• Clients come and go over time, as family members come and visit, and as DHCP leases expire. The history of known clients is tracked by MAC address. Clients may be manually deleted from the database (i.e., That laptop went in the tub with kids! (long gone)). No changes are ever made on the dhcp server.
• Some hostnames are ambiguous, such as '*' and 'android-2ab8700dff69dbfd'. Notes may be manually added for each tracked client.
• The Organization Unique ID for for each devices' MAC address is looked up and added to the database, often providing enough info to identify strange devices.

Note: router and dhcp server are used somewhat interchangeable in this documentation. This utility was originally written for dd-wrt, which runs on routers. Newer versions also support pfSense as a dhcp server.

NOTE: Due to as-of-yet unsolved problems with Python 3.6 and import_resources, the --setup-user and --setup-site switches are not working on Py 3.6. Manually grab the files from the github src/deployment_files directory and place them in the ~\.config\routermonitor directory. These command line switches work correctly on Python 3.7+.

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Notable changes since prior release

V3.1:

• NOTE: This version supports pfsense+ 23.09-RELEASE using ONLY the ISC DHCP server. This version puts up a ISC DHCP EOL warning message on the DHCP Leases page, which shifts the table parsing. Since the new KEA DHCP server does not yet play nicely with the DNS Resolver, I'm currently staying with the ISC DHCP server.
• Adjusted for cjnfuncs V2.1 (module partitioning). SMTP params must be in the [SMTP] config file section.
• Fixed service mode exit when pfsense router is not accessible.
• Added retries to lookup_MAC().

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Usage

$ routermonitor -h
usage: routermonitor [-h] [--update] [--list-db] [--list-dhcp-server] [--sort-by {hostname,IP,first_seen,expiry,MAC,MACOUI,notes}]
                     [--create-db] [--note NOTE] [--delete] [--MAC MAC] [--config-file CONFIG_FILE] [--print-log] [--service]
                     [--setup-user] [--setup-site] [-V]
                     [SearchTerm]

Monitor for new devices/clients on the network.

The network dhcp server is queried for currently known DHCP clients.
Any new clients are identified and a notification is sent.  
3.1

positional arguments:
  SearchTerm            Print database records containing this text.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --update, -u          Check the dhcp server for new connections and update the database.
  --list-db, -l         Print known clients on the network from the database (default mode).
  --list-dhcp-server, -r
                        Print known clients on the network from the dhcp server.
  --sort-by {hostname,IP,first_seen,expiry,MAC,MACOUI,notes}, -s {hostname,IP,first_seen,expiry,MAC,MACOUI,notes}
                        Sort --list-db and --list-dhcp-server output. Overrides config SortBy. Default <hostname> if neither specified.
  --create-db           Create a fresh database and populate it with the current dhcp server clients.
  --note NOTE, -n NOTE  Add a note to the db for the specified --MAC.
  --delete              Delete from the db the specified --MAC.
  --MAC MAC, -m MAC     MAC address for --add-note or --delete.
  --config-file CONFIG_FILE, -c CONFIG_FILE
                        Path to the config file (Default <routermonitor.cfg)> in user/site config directory.
  --print-log, -p       Print the tail end of the log file (default last 40 lines).
  --service             Run updates in an endless loop for use as a systemd service.
  --setup-user          Install starter files in user space.
  --setup-site          Install starter files in system-wide space. Run with root prev.
  -V, --version         Return version number and exit.

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Example output

$ routermonitor --list-db
$ ./routermonitor
 WARNING:  ========== routermonitor (3.1) ==========
    INFO:  Config file </path/to/routermonitor.cfg>
Hostname                   First seen           Current IP     IP Expiry            MAC                MAC Org Unique ID               Notes
Denon-AVR-X1600H           2020-05-22 18:23:30  192.168.1.112  2020-05-24 10:42:07  00:05:cd:8a:ab:8d  Denon, Ltd.                     -
Galaxy-S10-jen             2020-05-22 18:23:33  192.168.1.114  2020-05-22 18:33:29  10:98:c3:80:cd:b2  Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.  -
amazon-b6f1c2033           2020-05-23 06:45:05  192.168.1.118  2020-05-24 12:57:19  38:f7:3d:16:ef:40  Amazon Technologies Inc.        Wife's Kindle Fire
espressif                  2020-05-22 18:23:35  192.168.2.121  2020-05-24 11:45:03  44:67:55:02:01:7f  Orbit Irrigation                -
Flex5                      2020-05-22 18:23:36  192.168.1.123  2020-05-24 11:59:32  50:5b:c2:e1:23:ef  Liteon Technology Corporation   -
*                          2020-05-22 18:23:37  192.168.1.144  2020-05-24 15:21:31  64:52:99:90:45:aa  The Chamberlain Group, Inc      Liftmaster gateway 828LM in office
MyQ-F8C                    2020-05-22 18:23:38  192.168.1.143  2020-05-24 11:07:13  64:52:99:91:67:51  The Chamberlain Group, Inc      Garage door opener
ESP_48CEBF                 2020-05-22 18:23:40  192.168.2.146  2020-05-24 08:51:01  80:7d:3a:48:89:bf  Espressif Inc.                  Basement lights smartsocket
*                          2020-05-22 18:23:41  192.168.2.133  2020-05-24 15:00:59  8c:85:80:1d:ab:69  Smart Innovation LLC            Eufy doorbell
RPi1                       2020-05-22 18:23:42  192.168.1.31   static lease         b8:27:eb:25:cd:f7  Raspberry Pi Foundation         -
FireStick4k                2020-05-22 18:23:44  192.168.1.40   static lease         cc:9e:a2:56:ef:c9  Amazon Technologies Inc.        -
...
  <23>  known clients.

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Setup and Usage notes

• Install routermonitor from PyPI (pip install routermonitor)
• Install the initial configuration files (routermonitor --setup-user places files at ~/.config/routermonitor).
• Edit/configure routermonitor.cfg, creds_SMTP, and creds_routermonitor as needed.
  • If using a dd-wrt router, set up SSH access from your host machine to your router: Enable SSH access on your router, generate a local key (ssh-keygen), and add the content of the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file into the dd-wrt GUI ssh access config.
• Run routermonitor manually to build the devices/clients database.
• Do routermonitor --add-note runs to annotate client info, as desired. Example: routermonitor --MAC 80:7d:3a:48:ce:bf --add-note "Basement lights smartsocket".
• routermonitor --list-db (equivalent to just routermonitor) provides a list of all known clients over time. --sort-by hostname may be useful. The report may be sorted by MAC, hostname, IP, first_seen, expiry, notes, or MACOUI. The default SortBy may be set in the config file.
• routermonitor --list-dhcp-server provides a list of the currently known DHCP clients on the server. --sort-by is supported with fields MAC, hostname, IP, and expiry (MACOUI is not reported by the DHCP server).
• routermonitor amaz provides a list of all clients in the database that have the string 'amaz' in any field (two in the above example output) while routermonitor .2. lists all clients on my Guest WiFi (192.168.2.*, three in the above example output).
• routermonitor --update finds any new clients on the network, adds them to the database, and sends a text message notification (see routermonitor.cfg). Any changes in IP address or IP Expiry time are logged to log_routermonitor.txt at the INFO level. See LogLevel in routermonitor.cfg.
• Optionally set up the routermonitor systemd service. A template .service file is provided in the config directory.
• When running in service mode (continuously looping) the config file may be edited and is reloaded when changed. This allows for changing settings without having to restart the service.
• Supported on Python3.6+ on Linux and Windows.

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Version history

• 3.1 240106 - Fixed service mode exit when pfsense router is not accessible. Added retries to lookup_MAC().

  • Adjusted for cjnfuncs V2.1 (module partitioning).
  • Fixed service mode exit when pfsense router is not accessible.
  • Added retries to lookup_MAC().
  • Adjusted pfsense DHCP Leases table parsing (case changes in header) in 23.09-RELEASE.
  • Adjusted pfsense DHCP Leases table parsing for ISC DHCP EOL header warning.

• 3.0.5 230226 - Fixed inclusion of deployment_files

• 3.0 230215 - Converted to package format, updated to cjnfuncs 2.0

• 2.0 221023 - Revamped, moved from mysql to sqlite3

• ...

• 0.1 200426 - New