Network Interface Class

The NetworkInterface class provides access to specific information about the network on which the computer is connected. Every piece of hardware connected to the Internet has a unique address, called the MAC address, and it can be accessed using the following property:

NetworkInterface.MacAddress as String

Nodes on a TCP/IP network are identified by an IP address. Things such as routers and computers are nodes on the network. In effect, this means that any IP address represents the address of either a network or an individual computer. If your organization has a group of computers, and each one is assigned an IP address, each computer can access the Internet individually. To find the IP address of the computer on which the application is running, access the following property:

NetworkInterface.IPAddress as String

Sometimes you don't want this to happen, so you establish a subnet that allows the computers within your organization's network to communicate directly with each other, but not directly to the Internet at large, unless it goes through a proxy computer. This local, private address space is determined by the Subnet Mask, and you can access this mask with the following property:

NetworkInterface.SubnetMask as String