Every time I picked up a new smart device to look at, I'd end up rebuilding the same setup on a Linux box. Edit hostapd.conf , edit dnsmasq.conf , figure out the iptables rules for NAT, fight NetworkManager for control of the radio. By the time the AP came up the afternoon was gone. So I packaged it. Mezz is a docker compose stack. Two curl commands, edit .env , bring it up. What's inside: isolated wifi AP via hostapd, WPA2-PSK DHCP and DNS via dnsmasq, with per-query logging so you can see exactly what each device is talking to NAT out through a wired uplink local .lan domain optional mitmproxy profile for transparent HTTP/HTTPS interception The name is from mezzanine, the half-floor between two main floors of a building. This network sits in the same place: between your devices and the rest of your home network. I used Mezz to do the lab work for my last writeup, the cheap video doorbell teardown. Got what I needed in about an hour. The full post is on my blog if you want to see the workflow end to end.…