PowerShell can access low-level COM interfaces to find out system information such as network access. This code returns a list of all active network adapters and works with Vista/Server 2008 and above:
$cat = 'Public', 'Private', 'Domain' $GUID = [guid]'{DCB00C01-570F-4A9B-8D69-199FDBA5723B}' $network = [Activator]::CreateInstance([type]::GetTypeFromCLSID($GUID)) $network.GetNetworkConnections() | ForEach-Object { $result = $_ | Select-Object -Property Name, Description, *, Category $result.Name = $_.GetNetwork().GetName() $result.Description = $_.GetNetwork().GetDescription() $result.Category = $cat[$_.GetNetwork().GetCategory()] $result }
If you wonder why the list of properties submitted to Select-Object consists of named properties as well as "*", here's the scoop: the "*" selects all existing properties, and in addition to these, Select-Object also adds three new properties that get filled with custom values afterwards. This way, you can easily append object properties.
The result may look similar to this:
Name : internet-cafe 3 Description : internet-cafe IsConnectedToInternet : True IsConnected : True Category : Private Name : Unidentified network Description : Unidentified network IsConnectedToInternet : False IsConnected : False Category : Public
As you see, the properties Name, Description, and Category are the new properties added in the ForEach-Object loop. IsConnectedToInternet and IsConnected are the native properties that were present by default in the objects received by GetNetworkConnections().
