NetWatch

Lightweight network monitor and auto-repair tool for Apple Silicon Macs.

Runs in the background, detects common network issues, and attempts automated fixes — so you don't have to.

Install

Option 1 — Download .app

1. Download NetWatch-macOS-arm64.zip from Releases
2. Unzip and drag NetWatch.app to /Applications
3. Double-click to open

Option 2 — Homebrew

brew tap cyrillical00/netwatch
brew install --cask netwatch

What It Does

Issue	Detection	Auto-Fix
Wi-Fi drops	Interface + power state check	Toggle Wi-Fi power
DNS failure	Multi-host resolution check	Flush cache → Fallback DNS → Wi-Fi toggle
Gateway unreachable	Ping default gateway	DHCP renew → Wi-Fi toggle
Packet loss / high latency	5-packet ping with RTT	DHCP renew → Wi-Fi toggle
Captive portal	HTTP check against Apple endpoint	Alerts user (manual sign-in required)

Privacy

• Admin password stored in memory only — never written to disk
• No telemetry, no cloud, no LLM
• Logs written to ~/Library/Logs/NetWatch/netwatch.log

Permissions

NetWatch requires admin access to:

• Flush DNS cache (dscacheutil, mDNSResponder)
• Renew DHCP lease (ipconfig)
• Toggle Wi-Fi power (networksetup)

You'll be prompted once at launch. The session clears on exit.

Build From Source

git clone https://github.com/cyrillical00/netwatch
cd netwatch
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
./build.sh

Simulated Failure Tests

# Simulate DNS failure — point to bad DNS
sudo networksetup -setdnsservers en0 192.0.2.1

# Restore DNS
sudo networksetup -setdnsservers en0 Empty