NetAlertX Enables Privacy-Focused Home Automation via Network Observability

LINUX Unplugged · January 05, 2026 · Listen to Original Episode →

Original Title:

TL;DR

Net Alert X's plugin architecture enables integration with systems like Home Assistant and Pi-hole, synchronizing network device data and DHCP leases for comprehensive network observability.
Net Alert X provides local, self-hosted network monitoring without SaaS dependencies, offering real-time device detection and alerts, thereby enhancing privacy and control.
Integrating Net Alert X with Home Assistant via MQTT allows for automated presence detection, triggering home automations like lighting and climate control based on device presence.
The Net Alert X tool offers multiple network discovery methods beyond simple pings, building a memory of network changes to identify device IP shifts and uptime.
For simpler presence awareness, Home Assistant's built-in ping integration can track device connectivity to trigger automations, bypassing the need for external tools like Net Alert X.
The Nixbook project faces a critical licensing decision between permissive (MIT) and copyleft (GPL) licenses, impacting future adoption, community contribution, and potential for proprietary derivatives.
Managed Nebula from Defined Networking offers a decentralized VPN solution with a free tier for 100 hosts, allowing users to self-host infrastructure or utilize their managed service without vendor lock-in.

Deep Dive

The Linux Unplugged podcast episode "648: I See Live People" introduces NetAlertX, an open-source, self-hosted network monitoring tool, as a foundational element for enhanced home automation and network visibility. The core argument is that NetAlertX provides a robust, privacy-focused method for detecting devices on a network, which then serves as a critical data source for more sophisticated presence detection and automation systems, particularly within Home Assistant.

The primary second-order implication of NetAlertX is its ability to create a dynamic, real-time inventory of network-connected devices. This detailed awareness moves beyond simple intruder detection to enable granular presence detection for individuals within a household. By integrating with platforms like Home Assistant via MQTT, NetAlertX allows for the creation of automated routines that respond to who is home and who is away. This directly addresses a common challenge in home automation: reliably determining occupancy, especially in dynamic environments like RVs or homes with multiple occupants who may not all carry smartphones with dedicated apps. The system's local processing and lack of telemetry ensure privacy, a significant advantage over commercial cloud-based solutions.

Further downstream, this network observability can be layered with other data points to refine automation logic. For instance, the presence data can be used to control smart home devices (lights, heating, security cameras) and to manage alert systems, preventing unnecessary notifications when residents are present. The podcast also highlights simpler alternatives, like Home Assistant's built-in ping integration, demonstrating that the core benefit of NetAlertX is not just detection but providing actionable data that can trigger intelligent responses, underscoring the shift from passive monitoring to active, automated environments. The discussion on licensing for the Nixbook project, while a separate topic, implies that the open-source nature of these tools is crucial for community adoption and the development of such integrated systems.

Action Items

Audit network devices: Implement NetAlertX to scan for and log all connected devices, identifying new or unknown devices daily.
Integrate NetAlertX with Home Assistant: Configure MQTT to push device status and presence data, enabling presence-aware automations for 3-5 individuals.
Analyze network device changes: Review NetAlertX logs weekly to identify IP address changes or new device types, correlating with network activity.
Establish device identification standards: Document common device types (e.g., IoT, personal, guest) detected by NetAlertX for improved network visibility.

Key Quotes

"Let's start by saying good morning to our friends over at Define Networking. Go check out Managed Nebula at definenet.unplugged. This is a decentralized VPN that's like no other. It's built on the Nebula project, which we trust. It's fully open, been around since 2017. Something you can really look at, go through, self-host the whole shebang from top to bottom. And I think this is something that I like to emphasize at this moment because it really makes Nebula stand out. Their free tier isn't competing with some other product that's going to eat away at their business. They're not trying to just do a sales funnel thing here. In fact, you can completely self-host all of the infrastructure. What's nice about the Managed Nebula from Define Networking is they take care of a lot of the infrastructure for you, but at any point you can swap back and forth. You own the network, the identity, the routing, the control. It all stays with you, not a third-party control plane that you don't actually control. And Nebula's decentralized design means that there is no single point of failure. And not everybody accomplishes this, let me tell you from firsthand experience. And if you want to self-host the lighthouse so that way you can do all of the node discovery, all of that is under your control. You absolutely can. Or hit the easy button and check out Managed Nebula and you can get 100 hosts for free when you go to definenet.unplugged. No credit card required, no lock-in, just a fantastic open-source product turned into a package that's easy for you to use. definenet.unplugged. Support the show, go say good morning and check them out. And thank you to Define Net for sponsoring the Unplugged program."

The speaker highlights the benefits of Managed Nebula, emphasizing its decentralized design and user control over network infrastructure. The presenter notes that unlike some competitors, Nebula's free tier does not create a sales funnel, and users can fully self-host. This quote demonstrates the sponsor's commitment to open-source principles and user empowerment.

"Now, just a quick housekeeping to let you know about Scale and Planet Nix are just around the corner. And Planet Nix's call for proposals closes January 15th, so get them in. Yeah, let's see, 11 days from when we record. You going to do one? You thinking about one? I mean, you could just kind of, there's so many things you tinker with, you could probably come up with a talk pretty quick. Well, now you've suggested it, now I have to consider it. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, maybe. Well, the only trade-off is always there's so much stuff we're always trying to do and the short time that we're there, there's a lot of Nix to take in. That's how you got to balance it. That is true. Yeah, the event will have two parallel tracks that take place over two days. Speakers can submit proposals for talks or workshops or both. And each day they're going to have a mix of both talks and workshops. And these are pretty awesome because, you know, sometimes what's happened before is someone from our excellent audience has given a talk at the same time my talk is at. And that's, but that's, oh, that's rough. So we're talking March 5th through the 6th at Pasadena. You will want, what the way this works is you're going to want to register for Scale and that gets you into Planet Nix. I'm hoping next week we'll have a promo code for you that'll take a nice little chunk of that registration off. We don't have it yet just because it's the holidays and, you know, they're just getting back to work. But it's my expectation that we'll have one for you soon and then you can sign up, you get a nice chunk off. And if you can make it to Planet Nix or just Scale on the weekend, we'd love to see you there. We actually don't have it locked in that we're going to be there. So at this moment in time, don't base your travel plans on us. Base it on Scale. And if we can make it work, if we can find somebody to help us get there and cover Planet Nix and Scale, then we are going to go with bells on. But that isn't locked in yet. It's a declarative bill, but it is an event we strongly recommend, both Planet Nix and Scale itself. And what's really great is this combo is at the same venue. There's some overlap there, so you can just kind of bang it all out at once and dip in from all, all like, it's just great. It's a really nice setup. You get like a talk about a bunch of server, you get in a Nix talk, you get to learn more about Postgres all in the same day. Go out to, you know, lunch. There's always, if you want to socialize, there's always opportunities. If you don't want to socialize, you don't have to. You can just be heads down and learn. It's, it works for both the introvert and the extrovert or if the introvert wants to flex their extrovert muscles for a couple of days, works for that. So check it out. We'll have a link. Planet Nix 2026, March 5th through the 6th, Pasadena Convention Center. Don't miss it."

The speaker provides details about upcoming events, Scale and Planet Nix, including deadlines for proposal submissions and event dates. The presenter emphasizes the convenience of these events being held at the same venue, allowing attendees to experience a variety of talks and workshops. This quote serves as an announcement and call to action for listeners interested in these conferences.

"Gentlemen, if you'll indulge me, I'd love to tell you about my Net Alert X setup. Now, this is a network intruder and presence detector that scans for devices that are connected to your network and then alerts you if a new or unknown device is discovered. It's kind of handy, especially if you live in a neighborhood where people might be scanning Wi-Fi or, you know, you're just a little concerned. And it's not like a typical dashboard that you stare at. What it is, is it's building a memory of your network. This is all local first, it's all self-hosted, it's open source. There's no account you have to create, there's no SaaS brain processing it, there's no telemetry. Your network is essentially, the way the design of Net Alert X is, is your network is a fluid, moving thing where things change, new things update and ports open, hopefully not a lot, but over

Resources

External Resources

Books

"NixOS Configuration Confessions" - Mentioned as a resource for Nix configurations.

Articles & Papers

"The Genesis and Main Chief Maintainer" - Discussed in relation to licensing decisions for open-source projects.
"The Nix Book" - Mentioned as a project that relies heavily on other projects and has licensing questions.

People

Chris - Host of the podcast.
Wes - Host of the podcast.
Brent - Host of the podcast.
Olympia Mike - Developer seeking advice on licensing for the "Nix Book" project.
Eric - Listener who boosted the show and mentioned their wife's laptop running Nix OS.
Thumbs - Listener who boosted the show and is catching up on episodes.
Kanguru - Listener who boosted the show and enjoys community setups and Nix configs.
The Dude Abides - Listener who boosted the show and is a member, gifting their Boosty to someone else.
Pat - Listener who boosted the show with a prediction about PC components and the cloud.
Neil - Listener who commented on RAM prices and panic buying a desktop.
Hybrid Sarcasm - Listener who provided an update about Jean Bean.
Animated Jeff - Listener who boosted the show and is creative with homelab setups.
Tomato - Listener who boosted the show and enjoys the programming on Linux Unplugged.
Shabby Analyst - Listener who boosted the show.
A A Ron - Listener whose New Year's resolution is the year of NixOS and is installing it on their daily driver.
Swat - Listener who boosted the show and is moving to a Fairphone 6.
Marcel - Listener who boosted the show and suggested a category for "best dumpster rescue" in homelabs.
Jean Bean - Listener who boosted the show and asked about converting systems to Bcachefs and upgraded their Home Assistant setup.
Dorneil - Listener who boosted the show and mentioned Signal as a cross-platform chat app.
Richard - Listener who mentioned hardware shipping delays and rack nuts.
Anonymous - Listener who provided coordinates for an "altitude boost."
Moon and Knight - Listener who boosted the show with a prediction about Linux desktop adoption.
Starfleet Computer Scientist - First-time booster who made the switch to Linux on their primary machine.
Mitch - Lead developer of Podverse, featured on the Podcasting 2.0 podcast.

Organizations & Institutions

Define Networking - Mentioned for their Managed Nebula product.
Nebula Project - The project on which Managed Nebula is built.
Scale - An upcoming event.
Planet Nix - An upcoming event with a call for proposals.
Pasadena Convention Center - Venue for Scale and Planet Nix.
Home Assistant - Mentioned for its integration capabilities and presence awareness features.
Nix OS - An operating system mentioned for its configurations and installation.
Jupiter Broadcasting - The network that produces the podcast.
Fountain App - Mentioned in relation to wallet issues and a new beta UI.
Alby Hub - Mentioned as a self-hosted backup route for Fountain App.
Fairphone - Mentioned in relation to a new model and hardware.
Podverse - A GPL 3 podcasting app with a rebuild underway.
Podcasting 2.0 Podcast - Where Mitch, the Podverse developer, was featured.
Steam - Mentioned in relation to Linux adoption on desktops.
Microsoft 365 - Mentioned in a prediction about cloud computing.
Nix Nerds Matrix Chat - A community chat for Nix users.

Tools & Software

Managed Nebula - A decentralized VPN from Define Networking.
Nebula - A decentralized VPN project.
Net Alert X - A network intruder and presence detector.
Pi Hole - Mentioned as a source of truth for Net Alert X via API and for its dashboard UI.
Telegram - Mentioned as a notification service.
NTFY - Mentioned as a notification service.
MQTT - A messaging protocol used for communication between Net Alert X and Home Assistant.
Mosquito MQTT Broker - The MQTT broker used by Home Assistant.
Docker Compose - Used for containerizing Net Alert X.
iBeacon - Apple's technology for Bluetooth presence awareness.
ESP Presence Firmware Project - A project for ESP-based Bluetooth monitoring nodes.
Millimeter Wave Hardware Sensors - Mentioned as a potential presence awareness technology.
Motion Sensors - Mentioned as a potential presence awareness technology.
Choosealicense.com - A website that helps with choosing open-source licenses.
MIT License - A permissive open-source license.
GPL License - A copyleft open-source license.
BSD License - A permissive open-source license.
LibreOffice - Mentioned as an example of a commons application.
Mqttx - A tool for listening to MQTT topics.
Mqtt5 Explorer - A GPL-licensed tool for listening to MQTT topics.
Arch Linux - Mentioned in relation to Mqtt5 Explorer.
Unify - A web app aggregator built with KDE technologies.
Web App Hub / Web App Manager - A GTK-based web app manager written in Rust.
Gnome Desktop - A desktop environment for which Web App Hub is designed.
KDE Platform Technologies - Technologies used in the Unify application.
Firefox - A web browser mentioned in relation to managing web apps.
VTT Files - File format for transcripts.
Cloud Chapters - Feature for podcasts.
Speaker Diarization - Feature for podcasts.
Apple Podcasts - A podcast app that supports advanced features.
Podcasting 2.0 Apps - Podcast apps that support open-source standards.
Mumble Room - A live chat feature for the podcast.

Websites & Online Resources

Define.net/unplugged - Website for Define Networking.
LinuxUnplugged.com/648 - Website for episode 648 links.
Jupiterbroadcasting.com/calendar - Calendar for live stream schedules.
Podverse.fm - Website for the Podverse app.
joincrowdhealth.com - Website for CrowdHealth.

Other Resources

Home Lab - A recurring theme and topic of discussion.
Decentralized VPN - A type of VPN technology.
Network Monitoring Tool - A tool for observing network activity.
Family Presence Detection - A concept for automating based on home occupancy.
Open Source - A licensing and development model.
Proprietary License - A type of software license.
Copyleft License - A type of software license that requires derivative works to be shared under the same terms.
Permissive License - A type of open-source license that allows for broad use and modification.
Nix Configs - Configuration files for Nix.
Python Scripts - Scripts written in Python.
Python - A programming language.
GTK Apps - Applications built with the GTK toolkit.
Cloud Computing - A model of computing where resources are accessed over the internet.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Mentioned in relation to hardware hoarding.
Health Insurance - A topic discussed by CrowdHealth.
Medical Bills - A topic discussed by CrowdHealth.
Low Cost Prescriptions - A service offered by CrowdHealth.
Lab Testing Tools - A service offered by CrowdHealth.
Low Cost High Quality Doctors - A resource provided by CrowdHealth.
Home and Away Automations - Automations triggered by presence detection.
Water Pump - An example of a device that can be automated.
Lights - An example of a device that can be automated.
Heat - An example of a device that can be automated.
Cameras - An example of a device that can be automated.
RV (Recreational Vehicle) - Mentioned as a mobile home.
Bluetooth Presence Awareness - A method for detecting presence using Bluetooth.
Wi-Fi SSID - A network identifier.
Network Intruder Detection - A security function.
Presence Detector - A device or system that detects presence.
Network Discovery Methods - Techniques used to find devices on a network.
Pings - A network diagnostic tool.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) - A network protocol.
Nmap Scans - A network scanning tool.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) - A network protocol for assigning IP addresses.
DNS (Domain Name System) - A system for translating domain names to IP addresses.
API (Application Programming Interface) - A set of rules for how software components interact.
Prometheus Endpoint - An interface for Prometheus monitoring.
Long Term Retention - Storing data for extended periods.
Alerting Workflow - A process for handling alerts.
Event Driven System - A system that reacts to events.
Event Bus - A mechanism for distributing events.
Network State Information - Data about the status of a network.
ESP Devices - Electronic Support Program devices.
Docker - A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers.
OCI Container - A standard for container images.
Nix OS - An operating system.
Host Network - A network configuration for containers.
Local Container Network - A network specific to containers.
Internet Connection - A connection to the internet.
Blocking Hosts - Preventing specific hosts from accessing a network.
Security Automation - Automating security tasks.
Commercial Products - Products offered by companies.
Private LAN - A local area network that is private.
Mesh Network - A type of network topology.
Commercial Provider - A company that offers services.
Network Observability - The ability to understand the state of a network.
Proactive Action - Taking action before an issue occurs.
Health Insurance Alternative - A service that offers an alternative to traditional health insurance.
Community Funding - A model where a community funds expenses.
Middleman - An intermediary in a transaction.
Networks - Systems of interconnected computers or devices.
Healthcare - Services related to maintaining health.
Health Bill Negotiators - Individuals who negotiate medical bills.
Low Cost Subsidies - Financial assistance for healthcare costs.
Healthcare Expenses - Costs associated with healthcare.
Proprietary Hardware - Hardware that is not easily