LanGaze Help

Scanning

Scan runs one sweep of your current subnet: it pings the address range, reads MAC addresses from the system, resolves hostnames, and picks up Bonjour services. Scan Continuously repeats the sweep every few seconds until you turn it off. On the Mac both are in the Scan menu (⌘R and ⇧⌘R), along with Clear Results, Sync Now, and Manage Saved Labels (⇧⌘L); ⌘F jumps to the Filter field.

Results accumulate. A device that stops answering stays in the list, dimmed, with its last-seen time; it is not removed just because it went quiet. Clear Results in the toolbar menu resets the list.

Large subnets

Subnets larger than 4,096 addresses are pinged up to that cap. Devices beyond the cap still appear when the system's ARP table knows them.

Before the first scan

The window shows the network a scan will cover: the interface, the subnet, and how many addresses it holds. With no network connection it says so instead.

Status bar

The bar at the bottom shows how many devices are known and online, and when the last scan ran. On the Mac it also shows the iCloud sync state; click it to open iCloud settings. On iPhone, Scan and Scan Continuously sit in a bar at the bottom with the device count between them, and the sync state shows under the title. When a filter hides devices, the bar starts with how many are left, such as 12 of 196 match, and Clear Filter shows everything again. On iPhone the count appears under the title.

Hide Offline Devices

This option in the toolbar menu hides devices not seen in the latest scan. On the Mac, the list shows every device seen on the current network, with offline ones marked; on iPhone and iPad it also includes entries synced from a Mac.

Labeling devices

Right-click a device on the Mac, or touch and hold on iPhone and iPad, then choose Edit to give it a name, a type, and a note. The sheet shows the device's IP address, MAC address, and manufacturer, so you can tell which one you are editing. On the Mac, select a row and press ⌘I to edit it, or ⌘C to copy its details.

Leave the name empty to use the detected name, which the field shows in grey. The type's Automatic choice names what detection picked, for example Automatic (Router). Reset to Automatic, in the sheet or the device's menu, clears the name, type, and note. Saving changes only the fields you edited, so an edit made on another device to a different field is kept.

A device needs a stable identifier (a MAC address or a hostname) to be labeled. Labels are kept even when the device is offline, and they are never removed automatically.

Manage Saved Labels in the toolbar menu lists the whole saved inventory, including devices not seen recently, and lets you remove entries. A removed device returns the next time a scan sees it.

Device details

On the Mac, double-click a device to open its details. On the Mac, select a device and press ⌥⌘I (or the info button in the toolbar) to show everything LanGaze knows about it, in a panel you can widen by dragging its edge: status, when it was first and last seen, its addresses, manufacturer, and the services it advertises. On iPhone, tap a device; on iPad, tap its card. Details also offer ways to connect: Open Web Interface for routers, switches, NAS units, printers, and cameras; on the Mac, Connect to File Sharing and Open Screen Sharing when the device offers them; and Copy SSH Command.

New devices and background monitoring

A device LanGaze has never seen before is marked New for a week, unless you label it or choose Mark as Known from its menu or its details. Choose Unmark as Known to take that back. Devices with a private (randomized) address aren't marked New, because their address can change. Show Only New Devices in the toolbar menu lists just those, as does the new-device count at the bottom of the window, which then becomes Show All. Marking a device known syncs to your other devices.

On the Mac, LanGaze can tell you when a new device joins your network. It sends a notification when a scan finds a device it has never seen, as long as notifications are allowed for LanGaze in System Settings. Devices using a private (randomized) address are left out unless you turn on Include Private Addresses, because their address can change and each change would look like a new device. The very first scan of an empty inventory never notifies.

Watching in the background

The LanGaze menu bar item shows how many devices are known, online, and new, and lets you scan or open LanGaze. While LanGaze is running, even with its window closed, it scans on a schedule (every 15 minutes unless you change it). Turn on Open at Login to keep it watching after a restart.

Settings

In Settings: General has Show in Menu Bar and Open at Login, Scanning has Scan Automatically and Only on Networks You've Scanned (background scans skip a network, like a café or hotel, until you scan there once yourself), and Notifications shows whether notifications are allowed (with a button to allow them or open System Settings), then Notify About New Devices and Include Private Addresses, and Networks has each network's alerts and router access. Inventory holds Keep Unlabeled Devices and Manage Saved Labels.

Networks and VLANs

LanGaze tells networks apart by their router. The first network it scans sends alerts. Any other network, such as a hotel or an office, is recorded quietly: its devices aren't announced or marked New unless you turn on alerts for it in Settings › Networks. A network takes the name of its router, so label the router to rename it.

When your Mac moves to another network, the main window starts a fresh list and your saved devices stay in your inventory. An iPhone can't identify the router, so it works out the network from the devices it finds and lists the rest under Other Networks.

Seeing your other VLANs

A scan only reaches the subnet you are on. If your router supports SNMP v2c, turn it on there, then in Settings › Networks turn on Read Devices from Router and enter its address and community string. On iPhone or iPad, use Add Router if the network isn't listed; no Mac is needed. Each scan then adds the router's device table, so devices on every VLAN appear with their MAC addresses and manufacturers, and a VLAN column appears in the device list. Name a VLAN in Settings, or it shows its subnet. Names come from your router's DNS when it has them. This also gives iPhone and iPad a full list while they are on that network.

Good to know

LanGaze only reads from the router, and only on the network you set it up for. SNMP v2c isn't encrypted, so use your own community string rather than public, and block SNMP from VLANs you don't trust. The first read never sends alerts. A router forgets a quiet device after a while, so a device can show as offline until it next uses the network. Bonjour doesn't cross VLANs, so devices on other VLANs show fewer services.

iCloud sync

Sync is optional and off by default. Turn it on during onboarding or in Settings under iCloud. Your inventory syncs through your own iCloud account's private database; there is no LanGaze server and no account to create. Device data fields are end-to-end encrypted (two bookkeeping fields, a timestamp and a schema version, are not).

Sync Now

Runs a sync immediately and shows whether it succeeded.

Re-download from iCloud

Fetches every record again and merges it into this device's inventory. Use it if the app shows fewer devices than iCloud reports.

Remove All iCloud Data

Deletes the synced data from iCloud and turns sync off. Devices on this device are kept. If the removal fails (for example, offline), sync stays on so you can retry.

Names you assign, and edits from different devices, merge field by field: the newest change to each field wins.

Platform differences

Discovery depends on system capabilities that differ by platform.

macOS

The discovery platform. It reads MAC addresses from the system's ARP table, which is what enables vendor identification. Response times usually stay empty under the App Sandbox; that is expected.

iPhone and iPad

Cannot read the ARP table, so on their own they mostly see Bonjour devices. Their strength is showing the inventory synced from a Mac, including each device's MAC and vendor learned there. On iPhone the list has two sections: On This Network (devices this iPhone's scans found) and Known Devices (found earlier by this or your other devices). Before the first scan, the count under the title says how many known devices there are; scan to see which are here now.

Scanning is IPv4 only, on the network you are currently connected to.

Keeping the inventory tidy

Settings offers Keep Unlabeled Devices: unlabeled devices not seen within the chosen period (30, 60, or 90 days, or kept forever) are removed automatically. Labeled devices are never pruned.

Remove Unlabeled Now clears unlabeled devices immediately; they come back when a scan next sees them.

Import & export

Export Devices in the toolbar menu writes the inventory to a .langaze file for backup or transfer. Import Devices merges such a file into the existing inventory without deleting anything; for each field the newer value wins.

Copy Device List in the toolbar menu puts everything listed on the clipboard as CSV, ignoring any filter, for a spreadsheet or to compare what two devices found.

Troubleshooting

A device shows Private Address

Phones, tablets, and many laptops use a private (randomized) Wi-Fi address, which by design does not identify a manufacturer, so LanGaze shows Private Address instead of a vendor. With no other clue, such a device is guessed to be a phone; use Set Type to correct it. Many devices keep the same private address on a given network, so labels stick, but a device set to rotate its address appears as a new device when the address changes. Type "private" in Filter to list these devices.

My iPhone shows fewer devices than my Mac

Check that iCloud sync is on, on both devices, under Settings. Then use Sync Now, and if the count still lags, Re-download from iCloud on the iPhone.

An edit from another device hasn't appeared

While LanGaze is running, changes from your other devices usually arrive within a minute or two, including on a Mac with the window closed or in the background. A Mac app that has been quit catches up the next time it opens. Bringing the app forward, or pressing Sync Now, fetches immediately.

I removed a device and it came back

Removal deletes the saved record, not the device. If it is still on your network, the next scan re-discovers it. Label it instead if you want to keep track of it.

How do I start over?

Clear Results resets the scan list. Remove Unlabeled Now clears the saved inventory except labels. Remove All iCloud Data clears the cloud copy.

Privacy

LanGaze has no analytics, no tracking, and no developer-operated servers. Scan results stay on your device unless you turn on iCloud sync, which uses only your own iCloud account. A router community string, if you add one, is stored in your iCloud Keychain.

Full details are in the Privacy Policy.

Contact

Questions, issues, and feature requests are tracked at the project's GitHub repository.