namealive

NameAlive - Network Host Discovery Tool

High-performance network host discovery and identification tool using mDNS, NetBIOS, and SSH.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Fast discovery via mDNS (Linux/Mac) and NetBIOS (Windows)
• 🔍 Smart fallback to SSH when needed
• 🔑 Flexible authentication - SSH keys and passwords
• 📊 Multiple output formats - table, JSON, CSV
• 🎯 Parallel scanning with configurable concurrency
• 📝 Extended information - OS, uptime, MAC address
• 🔧 Zero dependencies - single binary

📦 Installation

Via go install (recommended)

go install github.com/dmikushin/namealive@latest

The binary will be installed to $GOPATH/bin/namealive or ~/go/bin/namealive.

From source

git clone https://github.com/dmikushin/namealive.git
cd namealive
make build
sudo make install  # Installs to /usr/local/bin

Download pre-built binary

Download the latest release from Releases.

# Linux amd64
wget https://github.com/dmikushin/namealive/releases/latest/download/namealive_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar xzf namealive_linux_amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv namealive /usr/local/bin/

# macOS
wget https://github.com/dmikushin/namealive/releases/latest/download/namealive_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
tar xzf namealive_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv namealive /usr/local/bin/

📋 Requirements

• Go 1.21+ (for building from source)
• Root privileges or CAP_NET_RAW for ICMP ping
• Linux, macOS, or Windows

🚀 Quick Start

# Scan default range (192.168.1.1-192.168.1.250)
sudo namealive

# Scan specific range
sudo namealive -r 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.100

# CIDR notation
sudo namealive -r 192.168.0.0/24

# Without password prompt (SSH keys only)
namealive --no-password

# Export to JSON
namealive --format json -o network.json

🎯 How It Works

NameAlive uses a multi-protocol approach for maximum speed and compatibility:

1. ICMP Ping - Checks if host is alive
2. mDNS Query - Fast hostname resolution for Linux/macOS (Avahi/Bonjour)
3. NetBIOS Query - Windows hostname resolution
4. SSH Fallback - When fast methods fail

┌─────────┐     ┌──────┐     ┌─────────┐     ┌─────────┐     ┌─────┐
│ IP Scan │────▶│ Ping │────▶│  mDNS   │────▶│ NetBIOS │────▶│ SSH │
└─────────┘     └──────┘     │ (2 sec) │     │ (2 sec) │     │(opt)│
                   │         └─────────┘     └─────────┘     └─────┘
                   ▼
                [Skip if not alive]

📊 Command Line Options

Flags:
  -r, --range string       IP range to scan (default "192.168.1.1-192.168.1.250")
  -u, --user string        SSH username (default: current user)
      --port int           SSH port (default 22)
  -p, --parallel int       Number of parallel connections (default 20)
      --timeout duration   Connection timeout (default 20s)
      --format string      Output format: table|json|csv (default "table")
  -o, --output string      Output file
  -v, --verbose            Verbose mode
      --extended           Show extended information
      --exclude strings    Exclude IP ranges
      --include-offline    Include offline hosts
      --no-password        Skip password prompt (SSH keys only)
  -h, --help              Display help

📖 Examples

Extended scan with all protocols

sudo namealive --extended --verbose

Large network scan with high parallelism

sudo namealive -r 10.0.0.0/16 -p 50 --timeout 5s

Export results to CSV

namealive --format csv -o hosts.csv --extended

Exclude specific ranges

namealive -r 192.168.1.0/24 --exclude 192.168.1.1 --exclude 192.168.1.254

📤 Output Formats

Table (default)

+--------------+----------+--------+--------+
|     IP       | HOSTNAME | STATUS | METHOD |
+--------------+----------+--------+--------+
| 192.168.1.5  | server01 | online | mDNS   |
| 192.168.1.10 | desktop  | online | NetBIOS|
| 192.168.1.15 | laptop   | online | SSH    |
+--------------+----------+--------+--------+

JSON

[
  {
    "ip": "192.168.1.5",
    "hostname": "server01",
    "status": "online",
    "method": "mDNS",
    "response_time": "2.1ms",
    "timestamp": "2024-01-20T10:30:00Z"
  }
]

🔧 Performance Tuning

• Parallel connections: Increase -p flag (default: 20, max recommended: 100)
• Timeout: Reduce --timeout for faster scans of responsive networks
• Exclude ranges: Use --exclude to skip known empty ranges

🛡️ Security

• Passwords are never stored or logged
• SSH connections use standard Go crypto/ssh library
• Host key verification disabled by default (for automation)
• Supports standard SSH key locations

📝 Building from Source

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/dmikushin/namealive.git
cd namealive

# Build
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Install system-wide
sudo make install

# Cross-compile for different platforms
make build-all

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.