Network Interface - VB.Net/Java

Question

I have this snippet in Java:

final InetAddress address = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
final NetworkInterface ni = NetworkInterface.getByInetAddress(address);
key = new String(ni.getHardwareAddress());

"key", on my PC returns:

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What would be the equivalent to get the same output in VB.Net? I have tried getting 'MAC Address' and 'Physical Address' but they do not compare to the output in Java at all?

Answer 1

I can't help you with the VB, but maybe I can clear a few things up.

In my experience, InetAddress.getLocalHost() is useless. It gives different results depending on the OS, on the Java version, on the brand of router you're connecting to, on the phase of the moon, etc. Stay away from it. If you want the loopback IP address, just hard-code it: 127.0.0.1. If you want the addresses of the network interfaces on your machine, call NetworkInterface.getInterfaces() and iterate through them.

The MAC address is the unique ID of an ethernet interface. Normally, you don't have to worry about it at all, unless you're doing something weird with the network hardware. It's got nothing to do with IP addresses.

Lastly: if you're looking to determine the IP address that others can use to connect to you, just be aware that it's not so simple. A computer may have multiple network interfaces - how do you know which one to pick? And if you're behind a router (as most machines are these days) then the computer is assigned a "local" address, which is completely useless to anyone outside the local network.