Question

Check Internet connected/disconnected status

Asked by: imarshad

Hi all,
I am trying to get the internet (Connected or disconnected) status in my VB.NET application. I am trying the following simple function which is running fine.
    Private Function CheckInternetStatus() As Boolean
        Try
            Dim IPhost As System.Net.IPHostEntry = System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntry("www.google.com.pk")
            Return True
        Catch
            Return False
        End Try
    End Function
 
I am calling this function from a Timer after every 30 seconds to check the status of internet connected or disconnected.

Dim InternetStatus As Boolean = CheckInternetStatus()
            If InternetStatus = True Then   'Internet is connected

            Else   'Internet is disconnected

            EndIf
The problem is that whenever I am disconnected the function takes a few seconds(almost 25 seconds) to return False and during this time the User Interface of my application freezes. How can I resolve this freezing of my User Interface? I think creating a separate thread for this might be the way to go but I am unable to find a good solution.
So my requirements are
1) Get status of internet
2) Get the internet downtime
3) Notified when specific time(say 2 min.) has passed and I have not connected to the internet.
(I have implemented all of this functionality using the function above and a timer control but I want it using threading)

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Asked On
2009-05-06 at 23:26:57ID24387776
Topic

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: drakeshePosted on 2009-05-06 at 23:30:01ID: 24322805

Whatever control you are using to access the internet must have a 25 second time out.

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-05-06 at 23:39:22ID: 24322852

You have two options. Reduce the timeout of the check or create a new thread. The more correct solution would be to create a new thread to handle the connection test. Lag times on an internet connection can be on the order of one second for a badly congested network. A UI that stalls for that long is not good form.

So your thread would be updating connection status every 30 second and using some form of inter-thread communication to send that to your main thread. The main thread only looks at the last known communication status to make its decision.

 

by: imarshadPosted on 2009-05-06 at 23:39:42ID: 24322855

Increased point value to 500.....

 

by: JackOfPHPosted on 2009-05-06 at 23:46:00ID: 24322890

Private pingDeviceThread As System.Threading.Thread

'Put this in your timer
Private Sub Timer_Tick()
pingDeviceThread = New System.Threading.Thread(New Threading.ThreadStart(AddressOf PingDevice))
pingDeviceThread.Priority = Threading.ThreadPriority.Lowest
pingDeviceThread.Start()

End Sub


Public Sub PingDevice()
        Dim pinging As New System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping

           Dim pingResult As Boolean = True
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
            Try
                If pinging.Send(System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntry("www.google.com.pk"), 50).Status = Net.NetworkInformation.IPStatus.Success Then
                    pingResult = True
                Else
                    pingResult = False
                End If
            Catch ex As Exception

            End Try

            pingDeviceThread.Abort()
       

    End Sub

 

by: imarshadPosted on 2009-05-07 at 00:02:36ID: 24322979

JackOfPH,
              How will I know that Internet connection is disabled/enabled in my UI? Will I need to use some global variables to hold the Connection status? and also how will I know how much time has passed since I am not connected to internet?

 

by: JackOfPHPosted on 2009-05-07 at 22:04:10ID: 24333132

Here is a sample, program...

It is not yet perfect, but this will give you some idea...

Jack

 

by: JackOfPHPosted on 2009-05-07 at 23:02:08ID: 24333367

Here is the file...

 View all files for Question ID: 24387776
http://www.ee-stuff.com/Expert/Upload/viewFilesQuestion.php?qid=24387776

Direct link to your file
http://www.ee-stuff.com/Expert/Upload/getFile.php?fid=7632

 

by: imarshadPosted on 2009-05-08 at 00:53:07ID: 24333821

Thanks for the code..... This code will definitely help me in understanding threadings.....

 

by: JackOfPHPosted on 2009-05-08 at 00:59:35ID: 24333849

:) Do I get Accepted Answer?

 

by: imarshadPosted on 2009-05-08 at 01:28:15ID: 24333992

Yes of course..... Let me just implement this in my own code....

 

by: JackOfPHPosted on 2009-05-12 at 17:38:10ID: 24370683

Need further assistance?

 

by: imarshadPosted on 2009-05-12 at 23:56:36ID: 24371997

I was very busy in another project and  forgot that I had this open..... It is working perfectly....

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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