WMI-Less Network Adapters

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We can get a list of network adapters (calling them NICs is a bit outdated: the C in NIC stands for ‘card’, like it’s something you plug into an ISA or PCI slot.  These days, it’s almost always built in) from Get-WMI Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration, but per

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394216%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

it’s being deprecated.  We should now use MSFT_NetAdapter.

Instead, and purely for interest’s sake, let’s call the underlying .NET object instead:

[System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface]::GetAllNetworkInterfaces()

It returns a list of all network adapters, and the following

TypeName Name MemberType Definition
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetIPProperties Method System.Net.NetworkInformation.IPInterfaceProperties GetIPProperties()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetIPStatistics Method System.Net.NetworkInformation.IPInterfaceStatistics GetIPStatistics()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetIPv4Statistics Method System.Net.NetworkInformation.IPv4InterfaceStatistics GetIPv4Statistics()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetPhysicalAddress Method System.Net.NetworkInformation.PhysicalAddress GetPhysicalAddress()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface GetType Method type GetType()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Supports Method bool Supports(System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterfaceComponent networkInterfaceComponent)
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface ToString Method string ToString()
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Description Property string Description {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Id Property string Id {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface IsReceiveOnly Property bool IsReceiveOnly {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Name Property string Name {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface NetworkInterfaceType Property System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterfaceType NetworkInterfaceType {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface OperationalStatus Property System.Net.NetworkInformation.OperationalStatus OperationalStatus {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface Speed Property long Speed {get;}
System.Net.NetworkInformation.SystemNetworkInterface SupportsMulticast Property bool SupportsMulticast {get;}

Not too shabby, eh? With this, we can get a list of active network adapters

[System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface]::GetAllNetworkInterfaces() | ? { $_.OperationalStatus -eq 'Up' }

Wireless network adapters

[System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface]::GetAllNetworkInterfaces() | ? { $_.NetworkInterfaceType -match '^Wireless' }

IP addresses

([System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface]::GetAllNetworkInterfaces() | ? { $_.NetworkInterfaceType -match '^Wireless' })[0].GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses

And so on…