Network Status

September 9, 2026 · View on GitHub

A DankMaterialShell bar widget that shows your local machine IP, active VPN tunnel IP, and (optionally) your Tailscale IP — built for keeping connectivity visible during HTB labs and other pentest lab work.

Screenshot

Features

  • Bar pill shows one address at a time — right-click the widget to cycle through Local, VPN, and Tailscale
  • Turns red and says "VPN off" the instant your tunnel drops, so a dropped lab connection is impossible to miss
  • Left-click opens a popout listing every address at once, with copy-to-clipboard buttons and a manual refresh
  • VPN detection reads network interfaces directly (ip -j addr show), so it works whether the tunnel came up via openvpn, wg-quick, or NetworkManager
  • Tailscale support reuses DMS's own TailscaleService — no extra process spawned
  • The last-selected bar address persists across shell restarts

Installation

Manually

cd ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins
git clone https://github.com/noahm-05/dms-net-status NetStatus

Then in DMS Settings → Plugins, click "Scan for Plugins" and enable Network Status. Add it to a bar section from Settings → DankBar.

Via DMS CLI (once available in the registry)

dms plugins install netStatus

Usage

  • Left-click the bar widget to open the popout with all addresses.
  • Right-click the bar widget to cycle what's shown: Local → VPN → Tailscale (if enabled) → back to Local.
  • Click the copy icon on any row in the popout to copy that address to your clipboard.
  • Click the refresh icon next to the popout's close button to re-check interfaces immediately.

Settings

  • Refresh Interval — how often to re-check interfaces (default 5s)
  • Compact Mode — icon only in the bar, no IP text
  • Include Tailscale — adds Tailscale to the right-click rotation and its own popout row
  • VPN Interface Prefixes — comma-separated interface name prefixes treated as VPN tunnels (default tun,wg,ppp,tap)
  • Excluded Interface Prefixes — comma-separated prefixes ignored entirely, e.g. Docker/virtual bridges (default docker,veth,br-,virbr)

How VPN/local detection works

Every poll interval, the plugin runs ip -j addr show and classifies interfaces by name prefix:

  • Interfaces matching a VPN prefix are treated as the VPN tunnel.
  • Interfaces matching an excluded prefix are ignored (virtual/container bridges, not your real connection).
  • Everything else with an IPv4 address is a candidate for "Local IP", preferring interfaces that are UP.

Both prefix lists are configurable, so this works whether your lab VPN comes up as tun0 (OpenVPN, the HTB default) or wg0 (WireGuard).

Requirements

  • DankMaterialShell
  • iproute2 (the ip command with -j JSON output support) — present by default on Debian/Parrot
  • Tailscale support is optional and just reflects "not available"/"not connected" if tailscaled isn't running

License

MIT