wificheck

A tool to notify you when an unstable Wi-Fi connection comes back online. Inspired by flakey cafe internet connections <3

Install

Homebrew

brew install genericJE/tools/wificheck

Manual

curl -o /usr/local/bin/wificheck https://raw.githubusercontent.com/genericJE/wificheck/main/wificheck
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/wificheck

Usage

wificheck                    # ping until the connection is up
wificheck -r                 # watch a live connection; notify if it drops
wificheck -q                 # quiet (no `say`)
wificheck -s                 # static; skip the animation, plain status line
wificheck -d 8.8.8.8         # ping a different host
wificheck -t 5               # give up after 5 minutes
wificheck -i 5               # ping every 5 seconds (default: 1)

Options

Flag	Description
-r, --reverse	Watch a live connection; notify after 3 consecutive failures
-s, --static	Skip the ASCII animation; show a plain status line
-q, --quiet	Suppress the spoken notification (say)
-d, --dns <host>	DNS/host to ping (default: 1.1.1.1)
-t, --timeout <mins>	Give up after this many minutes (forward mode)
-i, --interval <secs>	Seconds between ping attempts (default: 1)
-h, --help	Show help

Environment

Variable	Description
WIFICHECK_DNS	Default ping target. Overridden by -d/--dns.

Behaviour

Forward mode (default) — pings until the connection is up:

• First ping succeeds → "Internet is working"
• Later ping succeeds → "Internet is working again"
• Timeout reached → "Internet is not working. Tried for N minutes to reach <host> without success."

Reverse mode (-r) — pings while the connection is up:

• After 3 consecutive failures → "Internet is not working"

Requirements

• macOS (uses say for the spoken notification)
• bash and ping (both stock)

License

MIT

If anything here ends up being useful to you and you feel like saying thanks, my PayPal is https://paypal.me/genericJE. Truly no expectation either way, just leaving the option here in case.