radiosilenceapp.com

Security and privacy

network monitoring

SHOW HN2011

146points
77comments
#61of 1,097 in 2011
Top 6%of 2011 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

7 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 7 critical, out of 38 comments about the project. Thread score +0.02.

Execution: 3 for, 7 againstDesign: 3 for, 0 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Clean, minimal interface and good layout.

    From 3 comments
    • I like the minimalism of this, just a connection monitor, nothing else. Great work! 1 feature request tough: I've installed RadioSilence also, and it would be very handy to be…
      nclrhombre on HN
    • The bandwidth suggestions are good, but rather than suggest more, I'll just say I really like the way you've laid things out. The UI lets me see data via the angles I'd want to…
      runjake on HN
    • Great work! I really like the nice clean interface. It would be great if there would be an option to put it in the menu bar and hide it in the dock.
      huskyr on HN
  • Useful for seeing what runs on the Mac.

    From 2 comments
    • Very nice looking program - can certainly see myself using it to keep track of what's going on on my Mac. One thing I've noticed though, is that it doesn't seem to be catching…
      elemeno on HN
    • Looks awesome - exactly what I've been after to be honest. I'd love you if you could make it work on 10.6 as well...
      46Bit on HN

Objections

  • Connections not listed on some systems; fixed for 32-bit kernels.

    From 3 comments
    • The problem seems to be about kernel architecture compatibility. I'm going through the build settings etc to see if there's some reason this happens. I'll keep this thread updated.
      aparadja on HN
    • The downloadable package is now updated, and it should support 32 and 64 bit kernels. Please let me know if there are any more problems. Thanks for everyone's patience! * Edit: I…
      aparadja on HN
    • Update: The problem was related to 32 vs 64 bit kernels, and is fixed now. I also received an email confirmation from everyone who reported the issue that it works for them.…
      aparadja on HN
  • Does not show bandwidth usage per process.

    From 2 comments
    • Bandwidth. Bandwidth usage would be nice. This is something that little-snitch doesn't already do and you can't see it in activity monitor as far as I know. Any chance of…
      hmottestad on HN
    • To clarify. Activity monitor does not show a bandwidth usage on a process to process basis. Since the app in the link is a list of processes and where they are connecting it…
      hmottestad on HN
  • Java network traffic not listed.

    From 1 comment
    • Java network traffic isn't listed. I tried both Minecraft and the Clojure REPL. Nothing. It would also be useful to see the type of connection, TCP/UDP, port number, etc.
      pepijndevos on HN
  • Lion-only; no Snow Leopard support yet.

    From 2 comments

Requests

  • Bandwidth usage per connection or process.

    From 2 comments
    • Bandwidth. Bandwidth usage would be nice. This is something that little-snitch doesn't already do and you can't see it in activity monitor as far as I know. Any chance of…
      hmottestad on HN
    • To clarify. Activity monitor does not show a bandwidth usage on a process to process basis. Since the app in the link is a list of processes and where they are connecting it…
      hmottestad on HN
  • Drag and drop apps into Radio Silence.

    From 2 comments
    • I like the minimalism of this, just a connection monitor, nothing else. Great work! 1 feature request tough: I've installed RadioSilence also, and it would be very handy to be…
      nclrhombre on HN
    • Great, I just bought it. Any chance of incorporating Private Eye into Radio Silence, at least for the purpose of selecting the apps I want to block? Or being able to drag and…
      Udo on HN
  • Show live connections, not only new ones.

    From 1 comment
    • It seems like you check for SYN packets, so there is no way to just see the connection currently active. This in my opinion limits the usefulness of the application, it would be…
      fletcher on HN
  • Port and TCP/UDP details.

    From 1 comment
    • Java network traffic isn't listed. I tried both Minecraft and the Clojure REPL. Nothing. It would also be useful to see the type of connection, TCP/UDP, port number, etc.
      pepijndevos on HN
  • Snow Leopard support.

    From 2 comments
    • Looks awesome - exactly what I've been after to be honest. I'd love you if you could make it work on 10.6 as well...
      46Bit on HN
    • I agree... Any reason why you don't want to support Snow Leopard?
      ra on HN

Questions

  • How does it capture connections (APIs, kernel)?

    From 2 comments
    • I wonder how it works, i.e. what APIs it is using, etc. Any details? Question on SO:…
      albertzeyer on HN
    • Actually, it does use kernel-level connection tracking.
      aparadja on HN
  • Why distribute as a pkg installer?

    From 2 comments
    • Nice looking app! But why distributing it as PKG when it only creates Private Eye.app and com.radiosilenceapp.nke.PrivateEye.plist?
      sirn on HN
    • 2 questions: 1. Why distribute as a pkg instead of a zipped .app or a dmg? 2. Why not put it on MAS? edit: scratch that, I found the postflight script installing a kext.
      masklinn on HN
  • Why is the source closed?

    From 2 comments
    • Thanks for sharing! Any chance you share the source on Github?
      oscardelben on HN
    • My plan is to give the software away for free, but keep the distribution somewhat centralized and the source closed. The app is, on a business level, a marketing tool for my…
      aparadja on HN

Alternatives named

  • Little Snitch

    From 2 comments
    • Bandwidth. Bandwidth usage would be nice. This is something that little-snitch doesn't already do and you can't see it in activity monitor as far as I know. Any chance of…
      hmottestad on HN
    • It works for me. Thanks for making this, keep up the good work! Now if you introduce the option of blocking applications, I'd uninstall LittleSnitch for this.
      Udo on HN
  • nettop and netstat

    From 2 comments
    • nettop in the command line does it (added in Lion), maybe you can scrape it out of there or find the source to it to see how it's done.
      kalleboo on HN
    • On Lion there is also a new useful shell command called nettop.
      doe88 on HN
  • Wireshark

    From 2 comments
    • Thanks for the info. I'll look into the Java issue. Wonder if they do something unorthodox with their traffic. The connection details is something I've pondered about. Port…
      aparadja on HN
    • That's right. Of course, parsing the http requests isn't a monumental task, and it could be done. I'm just not sure whether it's worth it. Wireshark already exists, and I see no…
      aparadja on HN
  • nethogs and iftop (Linux)

    From 1 comment
    • this looks useful, so i had a look for the linux equivalent. turns out there's a command line utility called nethogs that does something similar (it shows bandwidth per process,…
      andrewcooke on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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