I was beginning to write a piece of code that operated on the currently connected network for Mac OS X.
After a quick search on the internet I have found this stack overflow question that pointed in the right direction. But for what I wanted to do it would be interesting to have all system interfaces, not only those which are currently connected. So I removed the if line that selected the connected interfaces and got rather interesting results.
en0 is my currently connected interface (via WiFi). But the most bizarre thing about this list of IPs is the place where they are actually pointing to.
Except for the loopback and empty IPs and for two other IPs (57.4.0.0, and 24.3.0.0, pointing to some private networks in Europe and Pennsylvania), **all** other IPs point to the US Department of Defense (a.k.a. NSA's parent department).
Apple has a single page in its support website about an apparent problem with Network Utility displaying such IPs on inactive devices. However they do not say it is a problem or a bug, they just say that the "eccentricity of Network Utility does not mean the interface is really active. If you want to avoid this confusion, review the IP addresses of active interfaces in Apple System Profiler, System Preferences, or Terminal (using the ifconfig command)".
I hate conspiracy theories, but if this was a Monty Python sketch the silly officer would be already hitting everyone with his stick and saying 'get on with it!'.
After a quick search on the internet I have found this stack overflow question that pointed in the right direction. But for what I wanted to do it would be interesting to have all system interfaces, not only those which are currently connected. So I removed the if line that selected the connected interfaces and got rather interesting results.
Code:
interface name: lo0; address: 24.3.0.0
interface name: lo0; address: 0.0.0.0
interface name: lo0; address: 127.0.0.1
interface name: lo0; address: 0.0.0.0
interface name: gif0; address: 55.4.0.0
interface name: stf0; address: 57.4.0.0
interface name: en0; address: 6.3.6.0
interface name: en0; address: 0.0.0.0
interface name: en0; address: 192.168.25.27
interface name: en1; address: 6.3.6.0
interface name: en2; address: 6.3.6.0
interface name: bridge0; address: 6.7.6.0
interface name: p2p0; address: 6.4.6.0
interface name: utun0; address: 1.5.0.0
interface name: utun0; address: 0.0.0.0
interface name: utun0; address: 0.0.0.0en0 is my currently connected interface (via WiFi). But the most bizarre thing about this list of IPs is the place where they are actually pointing to.
Except for the loopback and empty IPs and for two other IPs (57.4.0.0, and 24.3.0.0, pointing to some private networks in Europe and Pennsylvania), **all** other IPs point to the US Department of Defense (a.k.a. NSA's parent department).
Apple has a single page in its support website about an apparent problem with Network Utility displaying such IPs on inactive devices. However they do not say it is a problem or a bug, they just say that the "eccentricity of Network Utility does not mean the interface is really active. If you want to avoid this confusion, review the IP addresses of active interfaces in Apple System Profiler, System Preferences, or Terminal (using the ifconfig command)".
I hate conspiracy theories, but if this was a Monty Python sketch the silly officer would be already hitting everyone with his stick and saying 'get on with it!'.