How can I access netstat-like Ethernet statistics from a Windows program - c

Question

How can I access Ethernet statistics from C/C++ code like netstat -e?
Interface Statistics
Received Sent
Bytes 21010071 15425579
Unicast packets 95512 94166
Non-unicast packets 12510 7
Discards 0 0
Errors 0 3
Unknown protocols 0

Answer 1

The WMI will provide those readings:
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_IP
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_TCP
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_UDP
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_ICMP
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_Networkinterface
These classes are available on Windows XP or newer. You may have to resign to the matching "Win32_PerfRawData" classes on Windows 2000, and do a little bit more of math before you can display the output.
Find documentation on all of them in the MSDN.

Answer 2

A good place to start for network statistics would be the GetIpStatistics call in the Windows IPHelper functions.
There are a couple of other approaches that are possibly more portable:-
SNMP. Requires SNMP to be enabled on the computer, but can obviously be used to retrieve statistics for remote computers also.
Pipe the output of 'netstat' into your application, and unpick the values from the text.

Answer 3

Let me answer to myself, as I asked the same on another forum.
WMI is good, but it's easier to use IpHlpApi instead:
#include <winsock2.h>
#include <iphlpapi.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
PMIB_IFTABLE pIfTable;
MIB_IFROW ifRow;
PMIB_IFROW pIfRow = &ifRow;
DWORD dwSize = 0;
// first call returns the buffer size needed
DWORD retv = GetIfTable(pIfTable, &dwSize, true);
if (retv != ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER)
WriteErrorAndExit(retv);
pIfTable = (MIB_IFTABLE*)malloc(dwSize);
retv = GetIfTable(pIfTable, &dwSize, true);
if (retv != NO_ERROR)
WriteErrorAndExit(retv);
// Get index
int i,j;
printf("\tNum Entries: %ld\n\n", pIfTable->dwNumEntries);
for (i = 0; i < (int) pIfTable->dwNumEntries; i++)
{
pIfRow = (MIB_IFROW *) & pIfTable->table[i];
printf("\tIndex[%d]:\t %ld\n", i, pIfRow->dwIndex);
printf("\tInterfaceName[%d]:\t %ws", i, pIfRow->wszName);
printf("\n");
printf("\tDescription[%d]:\t ", i);
for (j = 0; j < (int) pIfRow->dwDescrLen; j++)
printf("%c", pIfRow->bDescr[j]);
printf("\n");
...

Answer 4

Szia,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netstat
On the Windows platform, netstat
information can be retrieved by
calling the GetTcpTable and
GetUdpTable functions in the IP Helper
API, or IPHLPAPI.DLL. Information
returned includes local and remote IP
addresses, local and remote ports, and
(for GetTcpTable) TCP status codes. In
addition to the command-line
netstat.exe tool that ships with
Windows, there are GUI-based netstat
programs available.
On the Windows platform, this command
is available only if the Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol is
installed as a component in the
properties of a network adapter in
Network Connections.
MFC sample at CodeProject: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/wnetstat.aspx

Answer 5

You might find a feasable WMI performance counter, e.g. Win32_PerfRawData_Tcpip_NetworkInterface.

Answer 6

See Google Groups, original netstats source code has been posted many times (win32 api)

Answer 7

As above answers suggest, WMI performance counters contains some data. Just be aware that in later versions of windows the perf counters are broken down in v4 vs v6 so the queries are:
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_IPv4
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_TCPv4
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_UDPv4
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_ICMP
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_IPv6
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_TCPv6
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_UDPv6
SELECT * FROM Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_ICMPv6