WMI-Less Network Adapters

We can get a list of network adapters (calling them NICs is a bit outdated: the C in NIC stands for ‘card’, like it’s something you plug into an ISA or PCI slot.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…