What is the best way to check for Internet connectivity using .NET?

Question

What is the fastest and most efficient way to check for Internet connectivity in .NET?

Answer 1

I personally find the answer of Anton and moffeltje best, but I added a check to exclude virtual networks set up by VMWare and others.

public static bool IsAvailableNetworkActive()
{
    // only recognizes changes related to Internet adapters
    if (!System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable()) return false;

    // however, this will include all adapters -- filter by opstatus and activity
    NetworkInterface[] interfaces = System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces();
    return (from face in interfaces
            where face.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up
            where (face.NetworkInterfaceType != NetworkInterfaceType.Tunnel) && (face.NetworkInterfaceType != NetworkInterfaceType.Loopback)
            where (!(face.Name.ToLower().Contains("virtual") || face.Description.ToLower().Contains("virtual")))
            select face.GetIPv4Statistics()).Any(statistics => (statistics.BytesReceived > 0) && (statistics.BytesSent > 0));
}