How to Find Your Local and External IP Address
Your device’s IP address is a critical piece
of information that you probably don’t think about very much. You’ll
occasionally need it for some network-related setups (if you’re trying to punch
a hole in your network to access the contents of your NAS box, run a web
server, or connect to your home-grown VPN, to
name a few examples), so it’s important to understand how to find it. Also, you
have two. Sort of.
In a typical home network—one where you’re
pulling down the internet from your cable modem, which is connected to your badass wifi router—you have an external
IP address and an internal IP address.
To simplify it, an external IP address is how
devices around the internet find you. It’s like of like calling a person’s
company when you’re trying to reach them. The external IP address, in this
case, would be the company’s phone number.
Your internal IP address is what your router
dishes out to all the devices connected to it. It handles all the “routing,”
hence the name, for data packets that travel in and out of your network. Think
of this as the receptionist at said company who has to deal with all the
incoming phone calls. They hear what you’re saying and forward you along to the
specific person you’re trying to reach, and also keep that person protected—to stretch the
metaphor—by not allowing random people to have access to their direct phone
number.
Got it? Sort of? Let’s continue.
How to find your
external IP address
This one’s easy. Visit the ever-helpful
website “WhatIsMyIP.com.”
Right at the top of the page, you’ll see your external IPv6 and IPv4 addresses.
You’ll probably only care about the latter for now, but you’ll (one day) use the former for all the networking
things you do.
If you want to get
even simpler, there’s also ipconfig.me.
Click that, and all you’ll see is your IPv4 address. That’s it. Nothing else.
For the simple IPv6 version of this site, check out the amazingly named icanhazip.com.
It doesn’t get easier than that.
How to find your internal IP address
Getting
your internal IP address is slightly more complicated than clicking on a
hyperlink, but it’s not that tough.
Windows
Open up the
Command Prompt via your Windows Start menu. Type in “ipconfig”
and hit Enter. Look for the line that reads “IPv4 Address.” The number across
from that text is your local IP address.
You could also get
fancy and use a utility like BgInfo or
a larger app like Rainmeter to
display your IP address on your desktop at all times. It’s probably overkill
unless you’re an IT specialist or network administrator, but it’s certainly an
option.
Mac
First, click
on the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your desktop and open System
Preferences. Then, click on Network. Find your connection type—wifi or
Ethernet—and click on it. (It should have a green dot if it’s active.)
Look to the
right, and you’ll see a sentence that looks like “...is connected to ..... and
has the IP address...” The number that follows is your laptop’s IP address.
If that’s too much
work, you could always use the cleverly named utility “IP in menubar”
to do just that—drop your IP address directly in your macOS menu bar. Again, it
doesn’t get much easier than this.
Android
I have a
Google Pixel 3 XL, so I’ll describe the instructions to find an IP address on
that. Your Android device will be similar, but these instructions might not
exactly match depending on what you’re using.
Tap on the
Settings app and tap on “Network & internet.” Tap on Wi-Fi, which I’m
assuming you’re using, since who connects their smartphone with Ethernet. Tap
on the gear icon to the right of the wireless network you’re connected to, and
then tap on Advanced toward the bottom of the next screen. Scroll down a bit,
and you’ll see your device’s IPv4 address.
iOS
Tap on your
Settings app, and then tap on “Wi-Fi.” Tap on the “i” with a circle in it to
the right of whatever network you’re connected to, and you’ll see your IPv4
address right there—and your IPv6 address right below it.
All
of your other devices
When in
doubt, your device’s IP address is probably listed somewhere in its
network configuration options with its settings menu—whether we’re talking
about your smart TV, your network-attached storage box, your gaming console, et
cetera. If you’re having trouble finding out its IP address that way, you can
always go the reverse approach: your router. Somewhere in your router’s
settings will be a list of all the device that are connected to it. Assuming
you can find your device’s name—or you know its MAC address—you should be able
to look up its internal IP address.
Source is Lifehacker.com & personal experience.
Please let me know how you guys found this article.
Also please let me now if this helped you guys in
anyway.
Until next time, stay home & stay safe!
Cheers,
Anup
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