java - Is it possible to specify which network interface for a JVM ( or IDE ) to use

Question

The situation goes like this, I have two network interfaces in my macbook pro. One is a statically defined Ethernet interface and the other one is a DHCP configured wireless interface.

I am trying to figure out how to configure a specific java project to use my statically wired interface only and not simply pick the first one in the list either through the JVM or through my IDEA ( IntelliJ 8 )

I have managed to achieve this via an instance of vmware where I have my virtual environment feeding off my wired interface only but this ads performance problems and just general headaches of flipping between windows / osx.

I have so far been unable to find a jvm property that let's me specify which nic gets used nor have I seen documentation for IntelliJ that defines that. If anyone has any ideas on how to solve this as painlessly as possible I would appreciate the help.

Answer 1

java.net.Socket has a constructor which specifies which local IP address to bind to, and since each network interface gets its own IP address, you can use that.

But getting from a java.net.Socket to a higher-level protocol (e.g. HTTP) is another matter entirely, but you don't specify what that would be.

I don't know of a JVM-level way of doing this, sadly, just the above programmatic approach.