Check for internet connection constantly

Question

How can I check for an internet connection constantly in my application and respond if the connection is not available?

Currently I am using:

while(true) {
 if(HasConnection()) {
     //doSomething..
  }
   //stop app by 1sec
}

but it seems rather inelegant.

Answer 1

The accepted answer to this question on superuser describes the way the Windows determines if it has network access. You could use a similar method, but I would spawn a separate thread when your application starts that is responsible for doing the check. Have the separate thread perform the check in whatever manner you feel is the best and raise an event if the connection status changes.

Answer 2

You're looking for the NetworkAvailabilityChanged event.

To check for internet connectivity, you can ping a reliable website, such as Google.com.

Note that it is not possible to be notified of every change in internet connectivity (such as an ISP outage).

Answer 3

Use the following code:

public static class LocalSystemConnection
{
    [DllImport("wininet.dll", SetLastError=true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
    extern static bool InternetGetConnectedState(out ConnectionStates lpdwFlags, long dwReserved);

    /// <summary>
    /// Retrieves the connected state of the local system.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="connectionStates">A <see cref="ConnectionStates"/> value that receives the connection description.</param>
    /// <returns>
    /// A return value of true indicates that either the modem connection is active, or a LAN connection is active and a proxy is properly configured for the LAN.
    /// A return value of false indicates that neither the modem nor the LAN is connected.
    /// If false is returned, the <see cref="ConnectionStates.Configured"/> flag may be set to indicate that autodial is configured to "always dial" but is not currently active.
    /// If autodial is not configured, the function returns false.
    /// </returns>
    public static bool IsConnectedToInternet(out ConnectionStates connectionStates)
    {
        connectionStates = ConnectionStates.Unknown;
        return InternetGetConnectedState(out connectionStates, 0);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Retrieves the connected state of the local system.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>
    /// A return value of true indicates that either the modem connection is active, or a LAN connection is active and a proxy is properly configured for the LAN.
    /// A return value of false indicates that neither the modem nor the LAN is connected.
    /// If false is returned, the <see cref="ConnectionStates.Configured"/> flag may be set to indicate that autodial is configured to "always dial" but is not currently active.
    /// If autodial is not configured, the function returns false.
    /// </returns>
    public static bool IsConnectedToInternet()
    {
        ConnectionStates state = ConnectionStates.Unknown;
        return IsConnectedToInternet(out state);
    }
}

[Flags]
public enum ConnectionStates
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Unknown state.
    /// </summary>
    Unknown = 0,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system uses a modem to connect to the Internet.
    /// </summary>
    Modem = 0x1,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system uses a local area network to connect to the Internet.
    /// </summary>
    LAN = 0x2,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system uses a proxy server to connect to the Internet.
    /// </summary>
    Proxy = 0x4,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system has RAS (Remote Access Services) installed.
    /// </summary>
    RasInstalled = 0x10,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system is in offline mode.
    /// </summary>
    Offline = 0x20,

    /// <summary>
    /// Local system has a valid connection to the Internet, but it might or might not be currently connected.
    /// </summary>
    Configured = 0x40,
}