Show list of connected clients with MAC addresses and connection time

[HiddenKeyDev]

---

name: Display connected clients information
about: Show list of connected clients with MAC addresses and connection time
title: 'Show list of connected clients with MAC addresses and connection time'
labels: 'enhancement, hacktoberfest'
assignees: ''

---

Description

Enhance the status command to display information about currently connected clients to the hotspot, including MAC addresses, hostnames (if available), and connection duration.

Current behavior

nm-hotspot status
# Shows basic hotspot status only

Desired behavior

nm-hotspot status

=== Hotspot Status ===
Status: ACTIVE
SSID: MyHotspot
Band: bg (2.4GHz)
Device: wlan0

Connected Clients (2):
  1. AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF - hostname-1 - Connected: 5m 23s
  2. 11:22:33:44:55:66 - hostname-2 - Connected: 1m 45s

Implementation hints

• Use arp -n to get connected devices on the hotspot subnet
• Parse DHCP lease file at /var/lib/NetworkManager/dnsmasq-*.leases
• Alternatively use iw dev <device> station dump for WiFi stats
• Calculate connection duration if timestamp available
• Handle cases with no connected clients gracefully

Resources

• NetworkManager DHCP leases location
• iw command for station information
• ARP table parsing in bash

Acceptance criteria

• Shows count of connected clients
• Displays MAC address for each client
• Shows hostname when available
• Shows connection duration when available
• Handles zero clients gracefully
• Error handling for permission issues
• Updated README with new output format

Difficulty

Medium - Requires system administration and networking knowledge