I recently learned about LocalSend and was intrigued by how it functioned by only using the WiFi network of the devices. I did not know my LAN had these capabilities.
Now that I’ve learned about it, I am excited to know if there is anything else I can do with it. Perhaps there could be a way to send prank notifications to all the connected devices, create a private chat room, or have custom LAN parties.
I genuinely do not know anything about how WiFi or LAN in general works in this matter. Is it possible for me to build my own applications that make use of these features? If so, I would love to get a direction on what resources or guides I should be looking for. If not, I would still be happy to use similar pre-built applications.
Well, if you have Linux, there’s KDE Connect (works on Gnome, too).
My computer sound pauses when I get a call, i see phone notifications (that I want) on my computer, I copy something on my computer and then paste it on my phone… …the list goes on.
If you live near a Starbucks, you can buy a cheap router, name its network “Starbucks Public Wifi”, make it public with no password, but also not connect it to anything.
People will connect, and get really really mad and Starbucks will be just as confused as the customers.
Na, the staff are overworked enough. Don’t lump something they have no control over on their laps.
This is done in Hotels everyday to use Keyboard loggers and get your information.
A simple network share.
Does your router have a USB port?
Plug in a thumb drive (32-64gb is fine) and configure it in your router’s admin interface to share on the network. (FTP and SMB shares)
An easy way to have all devices in a house able to access a shared directory. (Pictures, movies, music, files)
You can buy a raspberry pi and have Pihole setup on it. It’ll act as your local dns server and block any ad domains for the whole household.
Damn does this mean I have to buy another raspberry pi or can the one running octoprint serve double duty?
I had done this for several years but recently I’m running into the issue where my home router won’t let me specify a DNS server that is on the same subnet. I dont have multiple networks running at home so I can’t make a Pihole work anymore.
Congrats on dipping your toes into networking! Don’t let it suck you in too much or you’ll end up with a career change.
Plenty of resources out there to learn from, just pick a project and try to implement it. Or just play around with netcat (just ‘nc’ nowadays).
Look into the TCP/IP stack (or the OSI model, both cover the core concepts) for an overview of how applications talk to each other. This will also help you understand how LocalSend probably works (my guess is broadcasting to your network and seeing what devices are listening on a certain port. Some LAN-enabled games work like this, others aren’t as magical and ask you to provide an address and a port).
