Determining internet connection using Powershell
Is there a simple cmdlet I can run in PowerShell to determine if my Windows machine is connected to the internet through Ethernet or through the wireless adapter? I know you can determine this on the GUI, I just want to know how this can be managed in PowerShell.
Answer
The PowerShell cmdlet Get-NetAdapter can give you a variety of info about your network adapters, including the connection status.
Get-NetAdapter | select Name,Status, LinkSpeed
Name Status LinkSpeed
---- ------ ---------
vEthernet (MeAndMahVMs) Up 10 Gbps
vEthernet (TheOpenRange) Disconnected 100 Mbps
Ethernet Disconnected 0 bps
Wi-Fi 2 Up 217 Mbps
Another option is to run Get-NetAdapterStatistics which will show you stats only from the currently connected device, so we could use that as a way of knowing who is connected to the web.
Get-NetAdapterStatistics
Name ReceivedBytes ReceivedUnicastPackets SentBytes SentUnicastPackets
---- ------------- ---------------------- --------- ------------------
Wi-Fi 2 272866809 323449 88614123 178277
##Better Answer
Did some more research and found that if an adapter has a route to 0.0.0.0, then it's on the web. That lead to this pipeline, which will return only devices connected to the web.
Get-NetRoute | ? DestinationPrefix -eq '0.0.0.0/0' | Get-NetIPInterface | Where ConnectionState -eq 'Connected'
```
ifIndex InterfaceAlias AddressFamily InterfaceMetric Dhcp ConnectionState
17 Wi-Fi 2 IPv4 1500 Enabled Connected