A Simple Way to Detect Internet Connection in Java

To see if a machine is connected to the internet using Java, try pinging a reputable and accessible host, such as Google’s public DNS server (8.8.8.8) and seeing if you receive a response. Here is a basic example:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.InetAddress;

public class Main {

    public static void main(final String[] args) {

        // Prints true if internet is available
        // false otherwise
        System.out.println(isInternetAvailable());

    }

    public static boolean isInternetAvailable() {
    
        try {
        
            InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName("8.8.8.8");
            return address.isReachable(5000); // Timeout in milliseconds
            
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return false;
        }
        
    }

}

In the above example, the isInternetAvailable() method attempts to create an InetAddress object using the provided IP address (8.8.8.8). Then, it checks if the address is reachable within a timeout period of 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds) using the isReachable() method. If the address is reachable, it indicates that the computer is connected to the internet.

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