Alternatives
Products that do what the government sent me a traffic sniffer does
Is anyone else on HN participating in this FCC research project to measure broadband performance? [1] I signed up for more information when the project was announced, some time ago, but a few days ago the device arrived. Technically, it is quite an interesting little box. It's a generic consumer device, shaped like a wireless router, with an antenna and five RJ-45 jacks. But it works more like a bridge, plugging in between my existing ADSL modem/wireless-router and any wired devices that used to be plugged directly into the existing ADSL. No changes needed to be made to any of the…
- 1IB
I wasn't quite sure if this qualified as "Show HN" given you can't really download it and try it out. However, dang said[0]: > If it's hardware or something that's not so easy to try out over the internet, find a different way to show how it actually works—a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos. Hopefully I did that? Additionally, I've put code and a detailed guide for the netboot computer management setup on GitHub: https://github.com/kentonv/lanparty Anyway, if this shouldn't have been Show HN, I apologize! [0]…
2024 · lanparty.house
- 2AT
Hi everyone, I recently published a small open-source project. It’s a minimal network packet analyzer written in Go — designed more like a learning toy than a replacement for Wireshark. It currently supports parsing basic protocols like TLS, DNS, and HTTP, and includes a tiny fuzzing engine to test payload responses. You can inspect raw packet content directly from the terminal. The output is colored for readability, and the code structure is kept simple and clear. The entire program is very small — just about 400 lines of Go code. I know it’s not anywhere near Wireshark’s level, and I still…
2025 · github.com
- 3IA
A few days ago, I responded to a comment by bloggergirl offering to read anyone's web copy and help. I shot off an email hoping for a paragraph or two of feedback on my startup's copy. Instead I received a professional, detailed deck of tons of invaluable well thought out feedback. It must have taken her an entire afternoon. Here's a link to it: http://www.slideshare.net/shereefb/recommendations-for-bettermeans To top it off, this isn't someone with a lot of free time on her hands, she's only days away from launching her own startup (page99test) This community blows my mind!
2010
- 4
- 5AU
Howdy HN! I find myself testing my ping from time to time, especially when my internet seems wonky while WFH. It feels like there should be an easier way test my ping than puling up a terminal or a complex web app - especially when I'm on my phone or any other device that doesn't have a terminal. I figured I should be the change I wish to see in the world and created this super light ping test. I also created a latency monitoring solution (https://github.com/cjjeakle/network-monitor), feel free to clone and try it out! I know there are a lot more mature monitoring…
2022 · ping.projects.chrisjeakle.com
- 6QAQ&A for HN users▲142
2012 · askolo.com
- 7HN
I put this together since I find myself switching away from the terminal to see if anything new popped up in HN. There might be similar ones out there, didn't bother looking. It was a quick experiment, which might end up with a few more features.
2011 · github.com
- 8SHShow HN▲14
Hi, i was wondering what the HN community thinks of this email tone check application? Do you think this can be done better with open-source? Disclaimer: I am neither a founder or an employee at the company. Just someone who had a similar idea.
2011 · tonecheck.com
- 9OP
2022 · github.com
- 10FO
HN, I've been mostly lurking, semi-active on HN for over 4 years. For most of that time, I've been working on my startup, Learndot. I have always wanted to do a "Show HN" post, but I never thought it was ready. We've now finally launched web signup and using a freemium business model. I feel I can now post and offer something to the community (a new app to try out) and hopefully get good quality feedback. Here's the site: http://www.learndot.com Would appreciate any or all thoughts: From pricing/positioning, to design/performance. The app is written in Sproutcore and backed by an API written…
2013
- 11EM
Yesterday I decided I wanted to experiment with different ways of reading HN. After considering a few options, I settled on a Mac app and spent a couple of hours planning/sketching on paper. This morning I fired up Xcode and spent 4 hours hacking away and I must say I'm liking how it's looking. Since the project is in its very early stages, I though that it could be a very good time to get some feedback. I've posted a few screenshots at http://imgur.com/a/rCbVN and uploaded a binary at http://abra.rm-fr.net/~fiam/HackerNews.zip If you have some free time, give a try and let me know what you…
2011
- 12TY
Hi HN, Some misbehaving networks drop WireGuard packets either by accident or on purpose. Commonly the latter is done with simple DPI rules that block the handshake initiation [1], but it could be applied to other message types as well. We thought it would be great if there was tool for folks to use as a quick litmus test to see if this happening for them, without having to configure a client to send data through a random, functional WireGuard tunnel to an untrusted remote host. So we built probe.sh. How it works: - The probe.sh web app is an Elixir Phoenix app that spawns a few gen_udp…
2024 · probe.sh
- 13OG
Hey HN! I wanted to share a project that I've been working on for a while and finally "completed" (until next time I try to improve it, that is). The idea is that I wanted my guest wifi password to change frequently, but I also didn't want my guests to hate me every time they came over to visit. Hence be_my_guest was born. Please let me know what you think!
2022 · kmanc.github.io
- 14IB
Definitely one of those "20 minute adventure gone wrong" projects where all I wanted initially was a quick wireless rubber ducky for bitlocker keys and the like and then I kept adding stuff like AES-256..... Currently working on adding WebAuthn/FIDO support because the hardware is already there and scope creep is a lifestyle at this point. Would love feedback, especially on the security side. Repo and PCB files are fully open source.
Jul 2026 · github.com
- 15AF
Hi HN! I'm Nick, one of the cofounders of Bitping, and we'd like to share a tool that we've been working on for the past couple of years that lets you test network connectivity from real user devices around the world. We originally were part of a hackathon focused on building a product that is powered by micropayments and we settled on a network that could ping other network devices and users could be paid in fractions of a cent for performing said work. After winning the hackathon, we built an uptime monitoring service and discovered some discrepancies between our data and traditional…
2024 · developer.bitping.com
- 16MS
A little over a year ago I gave away over 4,600 copies of my intro to SSH tunneling book, The Cyber Plumber's Handbook, for free over a 48 hour period to the awesome folks here on Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19946941). Since then, I've been getting a lot of feedback about creating an interactive lab where SSH tunneling and port redirection techniques can be practiced in real scenarios. With a bit more time during the quarantine, I finally found the time to launch the lab portion. For the HN family, I'm offering the book and 2 weeks of lab time for 50% off…
2020
- 17MN
Hello HNers. I'm launching my new service, Certician, and I'd love some feedback from HN users. A while back, I asked if anyone knew of any good, simple tools or services for monitoring SSL certificates [1]. I didn't find any compelling services, so I decided to build one. I tried to keep it simple, since it's self-run and bootstrapped. I know my landing page needs help. It's a lot harder to distill down a service (even a simple one) into compelling, actionable copy than I thought! I have to work at my real job today, so I'll only be able to reply when I have time to take a break for a…
2011
- 18MS
linkrdr (www.linkrdr.com), a personal link aggregator, was directly inspired by http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3555923 I read while browsing on HN. It's still a bit rough, but the concept is an interesting one and people have already shown interest. Let me know what you think. Also, if anyone knows a good UX designer, email me :)
2012
- 19MW
So I got so involved in setting up AdWords, tracking down WP security bloggers, etc. that I forgot to post it here and get you all to check it out and offer suggestions. It's only been out for a couple weeks or so though, so this still qualifies as "launch window", I guess. Check it out here: http://www.panic-press.com/ Promo code "show-hn" for a free month to try it out. It has 100 uses, so it shouldn't run out, but if it does, let me know.
2012
- 20M4
Well HN, I've finally produced something I think is worthy of sharing, but I didn't do it "in a weekend". Yeah, it's an iOS puzzle game. And yeah, it's a game I built because I wanted to play it rather than based on market research, so all this sort of makes it the antithesis of a popular HN post. But whatever. Still hoping for some of that patented (har har) expert HN feedback. Critique any part of it except the music. Also, PM me for upgrade codes, or I can post some here if there's any interest. Download (it's free):…
2012
- 21IM
As a handsome local AI enjoyer™ you’ve probably noticed one of the big flaws with LLMs: It lies. Confidently. ALL THE TIME. I’m autistic and extremely allergic to vibes-based tooling, so … I built a thing. Maybe it’s useful to you too. The thing: llama-conductor llama-conductor is a router that sits between your frontend (eg: OWUI) & backend (llama.cpp + llama-swap). Local-first but it should talk to anything OpenAI-compatible if you point it there (note: experimental so YMMV). LC is a glass-box that makes the stack behave like a deterministic system, instead of a drunk telling a story about…
Jan 2026
- 22IM
Try it at: ssh krnl.duetbrowser.com No sign up, totally free - no download. Let me know what you think. Prior art exists (brow.sh) but I wasn't satisfied with their graphical take. I wanted the raw, old skool terminal days of the early internet - BBS, and old green phosphor library comptuers - but running the modern web, with all the bells and jingle jangle whistles (JavaScript, etc). No funding, no VC, just 100% raw terminal fun. Not sure how long the demo will last, but try it out.
Jul 2026
- 23HI
Still in early development, but I made an HN iGoogle gadget (see http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/109361710563279833553/iHN.xml ) and wanted to get your feedback on: 1) How many people use iGoogle 2) What they use it for (news, social, etc.) 3) If an HN gadget is useful to you, what would you like to see added to the gadget I created Thanks!
2010
- 24WB
Hey HN, After GPT-3 created waves in the tech industry, a lot of AI tools were emerging and with that, some AI website builders But the results seemed way too generic to us. It felt like the developers were rushing to catch the wave instead of building a proper tool We took our time, did months of RnD and finally came up with something better than what others in the market are doing. It’s got better design output. While it’s still in beta, I wanted to show HN what we did. Will appreciate the feedback when you guys try it out. Here is the link to signup for the beta:…
2024 · dorik.com
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