What is NETracer?

NETracer is basically a terminal application for monitoring network traffic and running network diagnostics, built with Rust + Ratatui.

I'm (Luca) personally building this to learn Rust, testing TUI, and just have fun along the way. Doing this journey with the help of GPT 5.6 Sol and GPT 6.0 Astra without letting them write everything.

The project is still in early developement, but you can already have fun monitoring your network interfaces, ping hosts, and try some themes.

What can you do with NETracer?

Monitor network traffic

The Overview tab shows live incoming and outgoing traffic, with graphs, transfer totals, and peak rates.

You can both select a single interface or look at the overall traffic by selecting the 'All' traffic source.

Ping your hosts

The Ping tab lets you ping IPv4/IPv6 addresses and hostnames, inspect results, and rerun checks from your recent targets.

Recent targets are saved between sessions. Select one and press Del to remove it.

CHANGE THEMES!

Networking tools deserve some personality too cmon! Open Settings and choose your favorite theme (DOS Classic is super cool, have a look by yourself).

Requirements

• Linux.
• A recent stable Rust toolchain, including Cargo.
• The ping command provided by iputils.
• A terminal with Unicode and color support.

On Ubuntu/Debian, install iputils with:

sudo apt install iputils-ping

If you haven't installed Rust yet, follow the instructions at rustup.rs.

Installation

Clone the repository and install NETracer:

git clone https://github.com/LucaBTE/NETracer.git
cd NETracer
cargo install --path . --locked

Then launch it:

netracer

Make sure Cargo's binary directory (~/.cargo/bin by default) is in your PATH.

Alternatively, build and run directly from the repository:

cargo run --release --locked

Controls

General

Key	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Switch between tabs
1 / 2 / 3	Open Overview / Ping / Settings when not editing a target
Q / Esc	Quit when not editing a target
Ctrl+C	Quit at any time

You can also click a tab to open it.

Overview

Input	Action
↑ / ↓	Select a traffic source
Click an interface	Select that interface

Ping

Input	Action
/ or click the input field	Start entering a target
Enter while editing	Submit the target and run a ping
Esc while editing	Leave the input field
↑ / ↓	Select a recent target
Enter with a target selected	Run another ping
Click a target row	Run a ping for that target
Del with a target selected	Remove the target
Mouse wheel over the list	Move the selection

Wait for the current ping to finish before starting another or removing a target.

Settings

Use the arrow keys or click a theme to select it.

Contributing

Feedback, bug reports, and contributions are welcome!

If you report a bug, please include:

• Your Linux distribution.
• Your terminal emulator.
• Steps to reproduce the issue.
• Any relevant error message.

Please remove personal or sensitive information from screenshots and logs before sharing them.

License

NETracer is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.