105 Finding the IP Address

This article describes how to find your IP address. There are two IP addresses that you should know, internal and external. The internal address is the address of your computer on your home network. The external address is the IP address of your network, or router, on the internet. Finding each address is relatively straightforward.

An IP address is a unique address on your network that identifies your computer. It contains four numbers from 0 – 254 delimited by periods. Each number is called an octet. The combination of the octets is used to identify your computer’s identity and location. If you want to learn more about IP addresses and the TCP/IP protocol, there are a bunch of resources on the internet.

Prerequisites:

• Installing Raspberry PI OS

Finding your External IP address

1. Google: What is my IP? The first result will be your external IP address.

Finding your internal IP address on your Raspberry PI

GUI (Graphical User Interface) method:

1. Move your cursor over the WiFi icon on your desktop (upper right corner)
2. Wait
   
   In this example, the IP address is 10.173.197.66.  The /8 is the size of the network.

CLI (Command Line Interface) method: (Raspberry Pi or Mac)

1. Start a command line (if you are in the GUI)
2. Type:

   ifconfig

3. Your Raspberry PI will return:

   bill@MissionControl:~ $ ifconfig
   eth0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
   ether dc:a6:32:b1:d4:fb txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
   RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
   RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
   TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
   TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
   
   lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
   inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
   inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
   loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
   RX packets 506 bytes 44984 (43.9 KiB)
   RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
   TX packets 506 bytes 44984 (43.9 KiB)
   TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
   
   wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
   inet 172.16.40.84 netmask 255.255.252.0 broadcast 172.16.43.255
   inet6 fe80::e8d7:69f6:e828:5aab prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
   inet6 2600:8801:280:2816::1039 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x0<global>
   ether dc:a6:32:b1:d4:fc txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
   RX packets 3233339 bytes 1245732402 (1.1 GiB)
   RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
   TX packets 325360 bytes 40704359 (38.8 MiB)
   TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
   
   bill@MissionControl:~ $

   wlan0 is the WiFi
   eth0 is the ethernet cable port
   inet is the IP address. In my case, the IP address of the WiFi interface is 172.16.40.84
   Note: if you see only 127.0.0.1, you are not connected to a network. 127.0.0.1 is called the loopback address and is the default if no network connection is found.

Finding the IP address on your PC (Windows 11)

1. Start a Command line by pressing the windows key on your keyboard and typing CMD, then press enter.
2. You will be presented with a black box with text. Here type:

   ipconfig

3. You will be presented with a bunch of text.

   Windows IP Configuration
   
   
   Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
   
      Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
      Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   
   Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:
   
      Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
      IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.40.73
      Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
      Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.42.1
   
   Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:
   
      Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
      Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   

   In my case, the IP address of my computer is 172.16.40.73.  you may need to scroll up to see it.