Programatically Switch Off/On Wi-Fi from WPF App

Question

I have a WPF app that has a control(checkbox /toggle switch) . I want to turn Wi-Fi On/Off by using those buttons. I have tried the following code but it doesnt seem to help

I am using Windows 10 and Visual Studio 2015

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace WpfApplication4
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // string name = "Hello World";
        }


        static void Enable(string interfaceName)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi =
                   new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("netsh", "interface set interface \"" + interfaceName + "\" enable");
            System.Diagnostics.Process p = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
            p.StartInfo = psi;
            p.Start();
        }

        static void Disable(string interfaceName)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi =
                new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo("netsh", "interface set interface \"" + interfaceName + "\" disable");
            System.Diagnostics.Process p = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
            p.StartInfo = psi;
            p.Start();
        }

        private void checkBox_Checked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            string interfaceName = "Local Area Connection";

            Disable(interfaceName);


        }

    }
}

I went through the following link with the first answer but there is no help .

I need some help so that I can programatically turn off/On Wi-Fi with the click of a button.

Answer 1

You can turn on/off Wi-Fi by changing software radio state (not hardware radio state) by Native Wifi API. Using some codes of Managed Wifi API project, I wrote a sample.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using NativeWifi;

public static class WlanRadio
{
    public static string[] GetInterfaceNames()
    {
        using (var client = new WlanClient())
        {
            return client.Interfaces.Select(x => x.InterfaceName).ToArray();
        }
    }

    public static bool TurnOn(string interfaceName)
    {
        var interfaceGuid = GetInterfaceGuid(interfaceName);
        if (!interfaceGuid.HasValue)
            return false;

        return SetRadioState(interfaceGuid.Value, Wlan.Dot11RadioState.On);
    }

    public static bool TurnOff(string interfaceName)
    {
        var interfaceGuid = GetInterfaceGuid(interfaceName);
        if (!interfaceGuid.HasValue)
            return false;

        return SetRadioState(interfaceGuid.Value, Wlan.Dot11RadioState.Off);
    }

    private static Guid? GetInterfaceGuid(string interfaceName)
    {
        using (var client = new WlanClient())
        {
            return client.Interfaces.FirstOrDefault(x => x.InterfaceName == interfaceName)?.InterfaceGuid;
        }
    }

    private static bool SetRadioState(Guid interfaceGuid, Wlan.Dot11RadioState radioState)
    {
        var state = new Wlan.WlanPhyRadioState
        {
            dwPhyIndex = (int)Wlan.Dot11PhyType.Any,
            dot11SoftwareRadioState = radioState,
        };
        var size = Marshal.SizeOf(state);

        var pointer = IntPtr.Zero;
        try
        {
            pointer = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(size);
            Marshal.StructureToPtr(state, pointer, false);

            var clientHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
            try
            {
                uint negotiatedVersion;
                var result = Wlan.WlanOpenHandle(
                    Wlan.WLAN_CLIENT_VERSION_LONGHORN,
                    IntPtr.Zero,
                    out negotiatedVersion,
                    out clientHandle);
                if (result != 0)
                    return false;

                result = Wlan.WlanSetInterface(
                    clientHandle,
                    interfaceGuid,
                    Wlan.WlanIntfOpcode.RadioState,
                    (uint)size,
                    pointer,
                    IntPtr.Zero);

                return (result == 0);
            }
            finally
            {
                Wlan.WlanCloseHandle(
                    clientHandle,
                    IntPtr.Zero);
            }
        }
        finally
        {
            Marshal.FreeHGlobal(pointer);
        }
    }

    public static string[] GetAvailableNetworkProfileNames(string interfaceName)
    {
        using (var client = new WlanClient())
        {
            var wlanInterface = client.Interfaces.FirstOrDefault(x => x.InterfaceName == interfaceName);
            if (wlanInterface == null)
                return Array.Empty<string>();

            return wlanInterface.GetAvailableNetworkList(Wlan.WlanGetAvailableNetworkFlags.IncludeAllManualHiddenProfiles)
                .Select(x => x.profileName)
                .Where(x => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(x))
                .ToArray();
        }
    }

    public static void ConnectNetwork(string interfaceName, string profileName)
    {
        using (var client = new WlanClient())
        {
            var wlanInterface = client.Interfaces.FirstOrDefault(x => x.InterfaceName == interfaceName);
            if (wlanInterface == null)
                return;

            wlanInterface.Connect(Wlan.WlanConnectionMode.Profile, Wlan.Dot11BssType.Any, profileName);
        }
    }
}

Check available interface names by GetInterfaceNames and then call TurnOn/TurnOff with one of the names. According to MSDN, it should require administrator priviledge but it doesn't on my environment.

---

SUPPLEMENT

I added two more methods to this class. So the sequence will be something like this.

1. Get existing Wi-Fi interface names by GetInterfaceNames.
2. Select an interface and turn it on by TurnOn.
3. Get profile names associated to available Wi-Fi networks through the interface by GetAvailableNetworkProfileNames.
4. Select a profile and connect to the network by ConnectNetwork.
5. After finished using the network, turn the interface off by TurnOff.

Answer 2

You could use the device library from windows universal apps.

Documentation: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.devices.wifi.aspx

Microsoft sample: https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-universal-samples/tree/master/Samples

In order to use this library with WPF application you could add

< TargetPlatformVersion > 8.0< / TargetPlatformVersion >

to your .csproj file between

< PropertyGroup>.... < /PropertyGroup>