Systems often run with 
multiple active network connections, such as wired Ethernet,
<code>802.11 b/g</code> (wireless), and bluetooth. Some applications might 
need to access this information to perform the particular network
activity on a specific connection.
<p>
The 
 class provides access to this information.
<p>
This lesson guides you through some of the more common uses of
this class and provides examples that list all the network interfaces
on a machine as well as their IP addresses and status.

<h3><a href="definition.html">What Is a Network Interface?</a></h3>
<blockquote>
This page describes a network interface and explains why you might want to use it.
</blockquote>

<h3><a href="retrieving.html">Retrieving Network Interfaces</a></h3>
<blockquote>
This page contains an example that illustrates how a client program
can retrieve all the network interfaces on a machine.
</blockquote>

<h3><a href="listing.html">Listing Network Interface Addresses</a></h3>
<blockquote>
This page shows you how to list the IP addresses assigned to all the 
network interfaces on a machine.
</blockquote>

<h3><a href="parameters.html">Network Interface Parameters</a></h3>
<blockquote>
This page shows you how to determine whether a network interface is 
running or if the network interface is a loopback interface, a 
point-to-point interface, or a virtual interface. You can also learn 
how to determine if the interface supports multicasting.
</blockquote>