Test if the connection is metered

I’ve been looking to some PowerShell script written by Microsoft to diagnose connectivity issues with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) and found a little gem in the code:

I’ve written a function for that:

	Function Test-isUsingMeteredConnection {
	<#
	.SYNOPSIS
	Test if a metered connection is in use
	.DESCRIPTION
	Test if a metered connection is in use
	.EXAMPLE
	Test-isUsingMeteredConnection
	False
	#>
	[OutputType([System.Boolean])]
	[CmdletBinding()]
	Param()
	Begin {
	try {
	$null = [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation, Windows, ContentType = WindowsRuntime]
	$connectionProfile = [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation]::GetInternetConnectionProfile()
	} catch {
	Throw $_
	}
	}
	Process {}
	End {
	if ($connectionProfile) {
	$cost = $connectionProfile.GetConnectionCost()
	if ($cost.ApproachingDataLimit -or $cost.OverDataLimit -or
	$cost.Roaming -or $cost.BackgroundDataUsageRestricted -or
	(
	($cost.NetworkCostType -ne [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkCostType]::Unrestricted.value__) -and
	($cost.NetworkCostType -ne [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkCostType]::Unknown.value__)
	)
	) {
	return $true
	} else {
	return $false
	}
	} else {
	$false
	}
	}
	}
	Export-ModuleMember -Function 'Test-isUsingMeteredConnection'

view raw Metered.psm1 hosted with ❤ by GitHub

This .Net object is very promising and has many methods compared to what you get when use the built-in Get-NetConnectionProfile cmdlet that uses WMI.

You can for example find how many signal bars you’ve on your Wireless card:

$null = [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation, Windows, ContentType = WindowsRuntime]
$connectionProfile = [Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation]::GetInternetConnectionProfile()       $connectionProfile.GetSignalBars()

Awesome isn’t?