SentriNet
Know every device on your network, and what it is doing.
Overview
Network monitoring and threat detection for small businesses. A lightweight sensor runs on a Windows or Linux machine, reads packet headers only, and feeds a dashboard that shows every device on the network and who it is talking to.
What makes it work
- Sensor agent for Windows 10/11 and Linux, distributed as signed builds with SHA-256 checksums on every release
- Header-only capture: who talked to whom, how much and when - packet contents are never read or stored
- Device inventory built from the announcements devices already broadcast (ARP, DHCP, mDNS)
- One-line installer registers the sensor as a background service that starts at boot
- Dashboard with network map, device details and alerts for unusual behaviour
- Built for the small business with a router, a few PCs, printers, cameras and phones - and nobody watching them
The story
Why it exists
A small business network is a router, a few laptops, a printer, some cameras and everyone's phone - and nobody is watching any of it. A camera quietly phoning home, a laptop that joined the Wi-Fi last term, a printer with an open port: these are exactly the problems enterprise monitoring tools solve, and exactly the businesses that can't afford or run those tools. SentriNet is the version built for them.
How it works
You sign in with a work email, add a sensor from the dashboard, and run one command on any machine on the network - Windows 10/11 or Linux. The sensor listens to the traffic passing by, keeps only the headers - which device talked to which, how much and when - and sends that to the SentriNet service. The dashboard turns it into a live map of the network: every device, what it is, and what it is doing. From there SentriNet does the watching: monitoring the network continuously and flagging the threats a business owner would never otherwise see.
What the sensor sees - and deliberately doesn't
Packet contents are never read, stored or transmitted; the sensor works from headers alone, which keeps the privacy story simple and the data small. Device names and types come from the announcements devices already broadcast to the whole network - ARP, DHCP and mDNS - so the inventory fills itself in with real names and vendors instead of bare MAC addresses. On Windows the sensor uses Npcap, on Linux libpcap.
Getting it running
The dashboard's Sensors page gives you an API key and a one-line installer that registers the sensor as a background service and starts it at boot. Every release publishes a SHA-256 checksum next to the binary, and the instructions say plainly: if the hash doesn't match, don't run it.
Status
SentriNet is live at sentrinet.site. The application source is private; the compiled sensor binaries, checksums and setup notes are public on GitHub.