PowerShell Pipeline

Use PowerShell To Work with a Network Adapter

If PowerShell isn't already your go-to tool for reviewing your NIC configuration, it should be.

• By Boe Prox
• 06/07/2018

In the past, we had to use various means to understand how our network interface card (NIC) was configured, as well as see what IP address was assigned to it.

Whether it was going through the GUI to look at the properties of the NIC or using our faithful command ipconfig to look at not only the IP address, but also other things such as the DNS settings or default gateway, these are some of the most important areas that we might look at when troubleshooting some sort of networking issue.

As with a lot of things using PowerShell, we were able to begin to look at automating things like reporting on all of the settings within a NIC using WMI, such as the Win32_NetworkAdapter class, which provided a great window into many things on the NIC.

PS C:\> (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration).Where{$_.IPAddress}|Format-List


DHCPEnabled      : True
IPAddress        : {192.168.1.171}
DefaultIPGateway : {192.168.1.1}
DNSDomain        :
ServiceName      : VMSMP
Description      : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter
Index            : 4

DHCPEnabled      : True
IPAddress        : {169.254.68.58}
DefaultIPGateway :
DNSDomain        :
ServiceName      : VMSMP
Description      : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2
Index            : 5

DHCPEnabled      : True
IPAddress        : {192.168.186.65, fe80::157e:349d:dc91:95c5}
DefaultIPGateway :
DNSDomain        :
ServiceName      : VMSMP
Description      : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #3
Index            : 11

Using Get-NetIPConfiguration, we can grab most of the same information that is the same WMI class.

PS C:\> Get-NetIPConfiguration


InterfaceAlias       : vEthernet (External)
InterfaceIndex       : 18
InterfaceDescription : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter
NetProfile.Name      : Alpha1_5G
IPv4Address          : 192.168.1.171
IPv4DefaultGateway   : 192.168.1.1
DNSServer            : 192.168.1.1

InterfaceAlias       : vEthernet (Default Switch)
InterfaceIndex       : 22
InterfaceDescription : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #3
NetProfile.Name      : Unidentified network
IPv4Address          : 192.168.186.65
IPv6DefaultGateway   :
IPv4DefaultGateway   :
DNSServer            : fec0:0:0:ffff::1
                       fec0:0:0:ffff::2
                       fec0:0:0:ffff::3

InterfaceAlias       : vEthernet (Internal)
InterfaceIndex       : 8
InterfaceDescription : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2
NetProfile.Name      : Unidentified network
IPv4Address          : 169.254.68.58
IPv4DefaultGateway   :
DNSServer            :

Now, you could continue to use WMI to gather this information, but this is yet another path to take if you are looking to gather information on systems locally or remotely.

Using Get-NetAdapter, you can also view more information about all of your adapters or a single one.

PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter

Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed
----                      --------------------                    ------- ------       ----------             ---------
vEthernet (Default Swi... Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #3          22 Up           96-15-63-AD-B0-CD        10 Gbps
vEthernet (Internal)      Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2           8 Up           00-15-5D-01-AB-01        10 Gbps
vEthernet (External)      Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter             18 Up           18-4F-32-F7-8F-4F       600 Mbps
Wi-Fi                     Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac                  12 Up           18-4F-32-F7-8F-4F       600 Mbps
Ethernet 2                Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexo...      24 Up           18-4F-32-F7-8F-4F       600 Mbps

PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter -InterfaceIndex 12 |Format-List


Name                       : Wi-Fi
InterfaceDescription       : Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac
InterfaceIndex             : 12
MacAddress                 : 18-4F-32-F7-8F-4F
MediaType                  : 802.3
PhysicalMediaType          : Native 802.11
InterfaceOperationalStatus : Up
AdminStatus                : Up
LinkSpeed(Mbps)            : 600
MediaConnectionState       : Connected
ConnectorPresent           : True
DriverInformation          : Driver Date 2017-10-18 Version 1.566.0.2 NDIS 6.50

If I wanted to enable or disable an adapter, I can pipe the object (or objects) from Get-NetAdapter and send to Disable/Enable-Adapter and disable/enable a single adapter or multiple. Note in the following examples that I choose to use -WhatIf to only simulate what would happen if the command were to run.

PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter | Disable-NetAdapter -WhatIf
What if: Disable-NetAdapter 'Ethernet 2'
What if: Disable-NetAdapter 'vEthernet (Internal)'
What if: Disable-NetAdapter 'vEthernet (Default Switch)'
What if: Disable-NetAdapter 'Wi-Fi'
What if: Disable-NetAdapter 'vEthernet (External)'

If you wanted to start looking around and even possibly configuring some of the advanced properties of a particular adapter, all of that can be done via PowerShell and the Get/Set-NetAdapterAdvancedConfiguration cmdlets.

PS C:\> Get-NetAdapter -InterfaceIndex 12 | Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty

Name                      DisplayName                    DisplayValue                   RegistryKeyword RegistryValue
----                      -----------                    ------------                   --------------- -------------
Wi-Fi                     Packet Coalescing              Enabled                        *PacketCoale... {1}
Wi-Fi                     ARP Offload                    Enabled                        *PMARPOffload   {1}
Wi-Fi                     NS Offload                     Enabled                        *PMNSOffload    {1}
Wi-Fi                     WiFi Rekeying Offload          Enabled                        *PMWiFiRekey... {1}
Wi-Fi                     Priority & VLAN                Priority & VLAN Disabled       *PriorityVLA... {0}
Wi-Fi                     Wake On Magic Packet           Enabled                        *WakeOnMagic... {1}
Wi-Fi                     Wake On Pattern Match          Enabled                        *WakeOnPattern  {1}
Wi-Fi                     Antenna Diversity              Auto                           antdiv          {-1}
Wi-Fi                     802.11d Support (Auto-Country) Enabled                        autoCountryD... {1}
Wi-Fi                     Bluetooth Collaboration        Auto                           BTCoexist       {3}
Wi-Fi                     2G Bandwidth Capability        2.4G: 20MHz                    BWCap2G         {0}
Wi-Fi                     D2 Listen Interval             5                              D2ListenInte... {5}
Wi-Fi                     Enable/Disable LTR             Enabled                        EnableLTR       {1}
Wi-Fi                     Fragmentation Threshold        2346                           frag            {2346}
Wi-Fi                     XPress (TM) Technology         Enabled                        FrameBursting   {1}
Wi-Fi                     40MHz Intolerant               Disabled                       Intolerant      {0}
Wi-Fi                     Assoc Listen Interval          1                              ListenInterval  {1}
Wi-Fi                     LTR Active value in microse... 60                             LTR_ActiveValue {60}
Wi-Fi                     Minimum Power Consumption      Enabled                        MPC             {1}
Wi-Fi                     Locally Administered MAC Ad... --                             NetworkAddress  {--}
Wi-Fi                     20/40 Coexistance              Auto                           OBSSCoex        {-1}
Wi-Fi                     BSS PLCP Header                Auto (Short/Long)              PLCPHeader      {0}
Wi-Fi                     Power Output                   75%                            PwrOut          {75}
Wi-Fi                     RTS Threshold                  2347                           rts             {2347}
Wi-Fi                     WFD Channel Number             11                             WFDChannelNu... {11}
Wi-Fi                     WMM                            Auto                           WME             {-1}

Let's say that I wanted to disable the wake on magic packet setting on an adapter. I would use Set-NetAdapterAdvancedConfiguration to accomplish this. I would not pipe the object from Get-NetAdapter and instead would use the parameter names to fill in the blanks. This includes having to type out the InterfaceDescription of the network adapter.

PS C:\> Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -InterfaceDescription 'Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac' -DisplayName 'Wake On
acket' -DisplayValue 'Disabled' -WhatIf
What if: Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty 'Wi-Fi' -DisplayName 'Wake On Magic Packet' -DisplayValue 'Disabled'

For the sake of not breaking something, I went ahead and used -WhatIf again.

With some of these examples, you can see how PowerShell is now your go-to tool for reviewing your NIC configuration, as well as for being able to make changes to any adapter that you have on your system.