How To Get Notifications About Network Connection Changes

The Microsoft Windows networking environment allows multihomed computers to connect to several networks simultaneously. There may be multiple wireless networks available along with LAN and dial-up connections. An application often needs to know if the machine has LAN or internet connectivity and take actions depending on that.

The WiFi Framework allows your application to know what kind of network connection a PC has and to be notfied about network connectivity changes.

The Network List Manager, the part of the WiFi Framework, can provide a wealth of information about the network. It is easy to discover every connection and every network attached to a machine. Some of the information, such as the network identifier, is read-only. However, you can change other information, such as the network name or network type. The Network List Manager identifies available networks and returns network attribute data to the application.

The Network List Manager interacts with the Network List Manager service to identify and retrieve properties of each network that the PC connects to. Each network is uniquely identified with a network signature based on the uniquely identifiable properties of that network. When an application registers for the Network List Manager notifications, the application receives notifications about the availability of new network connections or changes to existing network connections. Applications can adjust their logic depending on: which network they are connected to; which network connection they are connected to; or what the network properties are. With this information applications can fine tune their actions based on current network conditions.

The WiFi Framework package includes the NetworkListManager sample application that shows how to use the wclNetworkListManager class.