recon

recon is a small IPv4 ping-sweep tool written in Python. It was created as a fun side project for learning about network reconnaissance, subprocesses, and running tasks in parallel.

This is a simple learning project, not a replacement for a production network scanner.

Only use it on systems and networks that you own.

What it does

• Accepts a single IPv4 address or an IPv4 CIDR network.
• Sends one ping to each target.
• Runs multiple pings concurrently.
• Shows a small spinner while the scan is running.
• Prints reachable hosts, the total number of reachable hosts, and elapsed time.
• Uses the platform's ping command on Windows, Linux, and macOS-style systems.

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• The system ping command
• No third-party Python packages

Usage

Scan a single host:

python recon.py 192.168.1.10

Scan an IPv4 network:

python recon.py 192.168.1.0/24

Change the maximum number of concurrent pings:

python recon.py 192.168.1.0/24 --workers 100

Change the timeout for each ping:

python recon.py 192.168.1.0/24 --timeout 1

Both options can be used together:

python recon.py 192.168.1.0/24 --timeout 0.25 --workers 512

Options

Option	Default	Description
target	required	An IPv4 address or CIDR network
--timeout	0.5	Ping timeout in seconds
--workers	256	Number of parallel pings, from 1 to 1024

Example output

| Scanning hosts...
192.168.1.1 reachable
192.168.1.10 reachable

2/254 hosts reachable
Elapsed time: 0.62 seconds

Customizing the spinner

The spinner settings are near the top of recon.py:

spinnerText = "Scanning hosts..."
SPINNER_FRAMES = "|/-\\"
SPINNER_COLOR = "\033[33m"
TEXT_COLOR = ""
RESET_COLOR = "\033[0m"

You can change the message or animation frames to match your preference. This spinner is created by BenjaminUrquhart