Dark patterns are 'dark' because they're deceptive. They hide what they're doing in order to trick the user in to doing something that they might not have other

Dark patterns are 'dark' because they're deceptive. They hide what they're doing in order to trick the user in to doing something that they might not have otherwise done. In this case, if you want to check the local network, simply tell the user that's what you want to do, and give them a call to action like a button that they need to press in order to perform the check. Avoiding dark patterns is very easy - just be honest with the user.