Possible to get network MAC address in .NET Metro app? - networking

Question

I have the requirement to get get the MAC address of the network interface in my Metro UI app. As far as I can tell, this is simply not supported in the .NET 4.5 for Metro application API. Am I wrong?

Answer 1

You can't retrieve the MAC Address per say, but you do can retrieve hardware specific information to identify a machine.
Here's a complete msdn article discussing the subject: Guidance on using the App Specific Hardware ID (ASHWID) to implement per-device app logic (Windows)
Be careful to use just the information you need and not the complete id, as it might change based on information that are useless to you (such as the Dock Station bytes for instance).
Here's a code sample of a computed device id based on a few bytes (CPU id, size of memory, serial number of the disk device and bios):
string deviceSerial = string.Empty;
// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj553431
Windows.System.Profile.HardwareToken hardwareToken = Windows.System.Profile.HardwareIdentification.GetPackageSpecificToken(null);
using (DataReader dataReader = DataReader.FromBuffer(hardwareToken.Id))
{
int offset = 0;
while (offset < hardwareToken.Id.Length)
{
byte[] hardwareEntry = new byte[4];
dataReader.ReadBytes(hardwareEntry);
// CPU ID of the processor || Size of the memory || Serial number of the disk device || BIOS
if ((hardwareEntry[0] == 1 || hardwareEntry[0] == 2 || hardwareEntry[0] == 3 || hardwareEntry[0] == 9) && hardwareEntry[1] == 0)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(deviceSerial))
{
deviceSerial += "|";
}
deviceSerial += string.Format("{0}.{1}", hardwareEntry[2], hardwareEntry[3]);
}
offset += 4;
}
}
Debug.WriteLine("deviceSerial=" + deviceSerial);

Answer 2

You are restricted from accessing low-level networking information from a Metro Style application, therefore this is not possible with the stock SDK. This is by design.

Answer 3

private void getDeviceInfos()
{
Profiles = Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation.GetConnectionProfiles();
Adapter = Profiles[0].NetworkAdapter;
Guid AdapterId = Adapter.NetworkAdapterId;
}
IReadOnlyList<Windows.Networking.Connectivity.ConnectionProfile> Profiles;
Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkAdapter Adapter;