How to get network information for Windows Phone 8

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

When you create a Windows Phone app, you might want to get network information for the user’s phone. You can do this by using the properties of the DeviceNetworkInformation class. Because the properties are static, you do not have to create an instance of the class first; you can just access the properties directly. You can use the following properties:

• IsNetworkAvailable

• IsCellularDataEnabled

• IsCellularDataRoamingEnabled

• IsWiFiEnabled

Note

You can also determine the mobile operator of a user’s phone. For more information, see How to determine the mobile operator for Windows Phone 8.

Getting Network Information

In the following procedure, you put the code in a button click event for testing purposes only. In your own applications, you can access the properties wherever you need them. The following procedure assumes that you have a Windows Phone application that has a page with a button named button1.

To get network information

1. At the top of the code-behind file for your page, add the following statement.

   using Microsoft.Phone.Net.NetworkInformation;
   

   Imports Microsoft.Phone.Net.NetworkInformation
   

2. Add the following code to your button click event.

   private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   {
       System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
       sb.Append("Network available:  ");
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsNetworkAvailable.ToString());
       sb.Append("Cellular enabled:  ");
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataEnabled.ToString());
       sb.Append("Roaming enabled:  ");
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataRoamingEnabled.ToString());
       sb.Append("Wi-Fi enabled:  ");
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsWiFiEnabled.ToString());
       MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString());
   }
   

   Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object , e As System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
       Dim sb As new System.Text.StringBuilder()
       sb.Append("Network available:  ")
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsNetworkAvailable.ToString())
       sb.Append("Cellular enabled:  ")
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataEnabled.ToString())
       sb.Append("Roaming enabled:  ")
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataRoamingEnabled.ToString())
       sb.Append("Wi-Fi enabled:  ")
       sb.AppendLine(DeviceNetworkInformation.IsWiFiEnabled.ToString())
       MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString())
   End Sub
   

3. Save and build your solution.

4. Start your application and click the button.

   The message box should appear and your output should look like the following:

   Network available: True

   Cellular enabled: False

   Roaming enabled: False

   Wi-Fi enabled: False

Note

Your output will be different depending on the capabilities of your network.

See Also

Reference

DeviceNetworkInformation

System.Net.Sockets

Other Resources

How to determine the mobile operator for Windows Phone 8

Network and network interface information for Windows Phone 8

Sockets for Windows Phone 8