Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your network peers on a map

Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by rootbear on Sunday July 20, 2025 @09:18PM (#44630940)

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not sure what this is showing me. I'm running it on my home linux system, which is connected to the Internet via Verizon FIOS. The map shows three red dots, none of which are near me.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by h2337 on Sunday July 20, 2025 @09:20PM (#44630950)

Those 3 dots are your peers, the other end of the TCP connection :)

So you basically have some apps running in the background (or foreground) that are making those connections.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by rootbear on Sunday July 20, 2025 @09:28PM (#44630982)

Okay, got it, thanks. I suppose it could also be the FIOS router itself making those connections, or any of the other systems on my local network.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by esseph on Sunday July 20, 2025 @11:59PM (#44631680)

You might be surprised how much traffic every device makes.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by h2337 on Sunday July 20, 2025 @09:30PM (#44630988)

No, for normal network configurations they wouldn't show. It's most likely your system connmap is running on making those connections.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by jdwithit on Monday July 21, 2025 @01:35AM (#44632082)

It's only showing connections directly initiated by your computer. Not anything "upstream" of you like the FIOS router. It would also show any connections TO your computer, but being behind NAT on a normal home network, that would likely be nothing unless you've intentionally punched holes.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by positron26 on Sunday July 20, 2025 @09:38PM (#44631024)

Maybe they were expecting first hops like from traceroute. Maybe traceroute is an interesting way to continue developing.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by afroturf on Monday July 21, 2025 @02:25AM (#44632290)

I'm colorblind and had to change the dots color. Might be a nice config option.

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Re:Show HN: X11 desktop widget that shows location of your n... by edonhametsu on Monday July 21, 2025 @06:32AM (#44633610)

There's a 'good first issue'-labeled issue for this from 2023: https://github.com/h2337/connmap/issues/14

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