What is the best way to check for Internet connect

Question

What is the fastest and most efficient way to check for Internet connectivity in .NET?

Answer 1

I disagree with people who are stating: "What's the point in checking for connectivity before performing a task, as immediately after the check the connection may be lost". Surely there is a degree of uncertainty in many programming tasks we as developers undertake, but reducing the uncertainty to a level of acceptance is part of the challenge.

I recently ran into this problem making an application which including a mapping feature which linked to an on-line tile server. This functionality was to be disabled where a lack of internet connectivity was noted.

Some of the responses on this page were very good, but did however cause a lot of performance issues such as hanging, mainly in the case of the absence of connectivity.

Here is the solution that I ended up using, with the help of some of these answers and my colleagues:

         // Insert this where check is required, in my case program start
         ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(CheckInternetConnectivity);
    }

    void CheckInternetConnectivity(object state)
    {
        if (System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable())
        {
            using (WebClient webClient = new WebClient())
            {
                webClient.CachePolicy = new System.Net.Cache.RequestCachePolicy(System.Net.Cache.RequestCacheLevel.BypassCache);
                webClient.Proxy = null;
                webClient.OpenReadCompleted += webClient_OpenReadCompleted;
                webClient.OpenReadAsync(new Uri("<url of choice here>"));
            }
        }
    }

    volatile bool internetAvailable = false; // boolean used elsewhere in code

    void webClient_OpenReadCompleted(object sender, OpenReadCompletedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.Error == null)
        {
            internetAvailable = true;
            Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(() =>
            {
                // UI changes made here
            }));
        }
    }

Answer 2

Instead of checking, just perform the action (web request, mail, ftp, etc.) and be prepared for the request to fail, which you have to do anyway, even if your check was successful.

Consider the following:

1 - check, and it is OK
2 - start to perform action 
3 - network goes down
4 - action fails
5 - lot of good your check did

If the network is down your action will fail just as rapidly as a ping, etc.

1 - start to perform action
2 - if the net is down(or goes down) the action will fail

Answer 3

Multi threaded version of ping:

  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Diagnostics;
  using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
  using System.Threading;


  namespace OnlineCheck
  {
      class Program
      {

          static bool isOnline = false;

          static void Main(string[] args)
          {
              List<string> ipList = new List<string> {
                  "1.1.1.1", // Bad ip
                  "2.2.2.2",
                  "4.2.2.2",
                  "8.8.8.8",
                  "9.9.9.9",
                  "208.67.222.222",
                  "139.130.4.5"
                  };

              int timeOut = 1000 * 5; // Seconds


              List<Thread> threadList = new List<Thread>();

              foreach (string ip in ipList)
              {

                  Thread threadTest = new Thread(() => IsOnline(ip));
                  threadList.Add(threadTest);
                  threadTest.Start();
              }

              Stopwatch stopwatch = Stopwatch.StartNew();

              while (!isOnline && stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds <= timeOut)
              {
                   Thread.Sleep(10); // Cooldown the CPU
              }

              foreach (Thread thread in threadList)
              { 
                  thread.Abort(); // We love threads, don't we?
              }


              Console.WriteLine("Am I online: " + isOnline.ToYesNo());
              Console.ReadKey();
          }

          static bool Ping(string host, int timeout = 3000, int buffer = 32)
          {
              bool result = false;

              try
              {
                  Ping ping = new Ping();                
                  byte[] byteBuffer = new byte[buffer];                
                  PingOptions options = new PingOptions();
                  PingReply reply = ping.Send(host, timeout, byteBuffer, options);
                  result = (reply.Status == IPStatus.Success);
              }
              catch (Exception ex)
              {

              }

              return result;
          }

          static void IsOnline(string host)
          {
              isOnline =  Ping(host) || isOnline;
          }
      }

      public static class BooleanExtensions
      {
          public static string ToYesNo(this bool value)
          {
              return value ? "Yes" : "No";
          }
      }
  }

Answer 4

Use NetworkMonitor to monitoring network state and internet connection.

Sample:

namespace AmRoNetworkMonitor.Demo
{
    using System;

    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main()
        {
            NetworkMonitor.StateChanged += NetworkMonitor_StateChanged;
            NetworkMonitor.StartMonitor();

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop monitoring.");
            Console.ReadKey();
            NetworkMonitor.StopMonitor();

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to close program.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        private static void NetworkMonitor_StateChanged(object sender, StateChangeEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.IsAvailable ? "Is Available" : "Is Not Available");
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

bool bb = System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable();

if (bb == true)
    MessageBox.Show("Internet connections are available");
else
    MessageBox.Show("Internet connections are not available");

Answer 6

For my application we also test by download tiny file.

string remoteUri = "https://www.microsoft.com/favicon.ico"

WebClient myWebClient = new WebClient();

try
{
    byte[] myDataBuffer = myWebClient.DownloadData (remoteUri);
    if(myDataBuffer.length > 0) // Or add more validate. eg. checksum
    {
        return true;
    }
}
catch
{
    return false;
}

Also. Some ISP may use middle server to cache file. Add random unused parameter eg. https://www.microsoft.com/favicon.ico?req=random_number Can prevent caching.