IoT Inspector ‐ Prolific Guide
(The instructions below apply to both Windows 10 and 11.)
Download our the source code.
Save the ZIP file anywhere. Right-click on the ZIP file. Select Extract All.
Open the extracted folder. Double-click the IoT Inspector shortcut, highlighted in red.
After clicking it, you will see the dialog box below. Select Yes to run the PowerShell script.
You will see a pop-up to install NPcap if you don't have it. Click I agree.
Click Next. Please DO NOT change the selected boxes.
Once the Driver has finished installing, Click Next:
Click Finish to conclude installing NPcap.
Once the installation is complete, click the X to close the terminal
Double-click the IoT Inspector shortcut again. You should see this screen, wait a few minutes.
Click Allow for Python to run.
First, you need to provide your Prolific ID and click Submit ID
During the first run of IoT Inspector, a warning screen appears. Click the OK, I understand and wish to proceed button
Under the Device List, you can view the list of all detected IoT devices on your network. **I'd like to point out that IoT Inspector uses a default interface; therefore, if the devices are connected wirelessly, you should use only a wireless connection. **
In Device List, you can see:
- IP Address
- MAC Address
- OUI Vendor
- Device ID API output
Note: When running IoT Inspector for the first time, you will typically see this screen. Please don't take any action; the UI will automatically refresh. Also, the devices may appear as Unnamed Device, please give it 15 seconds for a name to appear too
Once some devices are found, you can see what your Laptop has discovered. As shown in the screenshot, you can see bar graphs for uploads and downloads. Note: sometimes the UI is a bit slow, THIS IS EXPECTED as it attempts to load a new graph every second.
In our example, imagine you want to label packets with the name 'Amazon Technologies'. This is likely an Amazon IoT device. Click it, and it will take you to the Detailed Device view.
Note, there are three buttons (Highlighted in Green):
- Inspected, if selected (red), you are actively collecting network traffic of the device.
- Favorite, the device is on a "Favorite" list and shows on the bottom left of the screen first
- Blocked, explicitly avoid collecting network data of the device
The Device Detail page first shows a much larger upload and download bar graph plotting the amount of network bits sent/received in the last 60 seconds, shown here:
Furthermore, if you scroll further down, you can see a table showing the hosts that communicate with your device for both upload and download traffic.
First, scroll all the way to the top and click the Label button.
Once you click Label, you will see three new menu options. Click the arrows to select the correct device type, device, and label. When working with Amazon Echo, select Smart Speaker as the device type and choose the correct Amazon Echo. Then select the activity you will be recording. When you are content with the labels, click the Start Button.
You will eventually see both a countdown and a Labeling Complete button become available to you. When you are done completing the task, e.g., when Amazon Echo finishes reading the latest news headline, immediately click the Labeling Complete button.
When you click Labeling Complete, it may take the UI a bit to return to its default state. You should wait a bit. If you try to label immediately, you may see a message stating to wait, as shown here:
Once the packets are delivered, you will see a message something like the following:
Please continue the Labeling process with different labels until you complete your task.
This is the overall statistics page
Nothing is set here, just yet
As IoT Inspector relies on PowerShell, you need to close the terminal by clicking the X and then close all IoT Inspector browser windows.
