This guide will show you how to locate your IP address in Linux.
A device’s location on the Internet or a local network may be determined by its IP address (LAN). It is set up in a computer’s operating system at the network layer. The IP address is used to send and receive data by any programs currently active on the computer that make use of Internet services. This is the standard client-server mode of Internet connection, in which an application on one computer communicates with an application on another computer.
Prerequisites for Getting a Linux IP address
To get an IP address on a Linux machine, you will need the following:
1.A functioning network interface: You need a network interface, such as an Ethernet card or a wireless card, to connect to a network.
2.Network cables or wireless connection: You will need a network cable to connect to a wired network, or a wireless connection to connect to a wireless network.
3.Network access: You will need to have access to a network that can provide you with an IP address. This could be a home network, a corporate network, or a public wireless network.
4.Network configuration: Your Linux machine will need to be configured to obtain an IP address automatically (using DHCP) or to use a static IP address. You can configure these settings in the network configuration utility on your Linux machine.
5.Permissions: Depending on the network you are trying to connect to, you may need to have the correct permissions or credentials to access the network and obtain an IP address.
What is a Public/Private IP Address?
A public IP address is an IP address that is used to connect to the internet. It is assigned to a device, such as a computer, by an internet service provider (ISP) and is unique to that device. This allows other devices on the internet to communicate with it directly.
A private IP address, on the other hand, is an IP address that is used to identify devices on a private network, such as a home or office network. Private IP addresses are not used to communicate with devices on the internet, but rather are used to communicate with devices within the same local network.
To communicate with devices on the internet, a device with a private IP address must use a network address translation (NAT) device, such as a router, to translate its private IP address into a public IP address. This allows the device to communicate with devices on the internet using the public IP address, while still maintaining its private IP address for communication within the local network.
Private Ipv4 addresses
Private IPv4 addresses are a set of IP addresses that are reserved for use within private networks and are not used on the public internet. These addresses are:
- 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
- 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
- 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
Private IPv4 addresses are commonly used on home networks, office networks, and other private networks to identify devices within the network. They are not routable on the public internet, meaning that devices with private IPv4 addresses cannot communicate directly with devices on the internet. Instead, a NAT device, such as a router, is used to translate the private IPv4 addresses of devices on the network into a public IP address, which is used to communicate with devices on the internet.
Public Ipv4 addresses
Public IPv4 addresses are IP addresses that are used to identify devices on the public internet. They are assigned to devices by internet service providers (ISPs) and are unique to each device.
Public IPv4 addresses are used to communicate with devices on the internet, allowing other devices on the internet to send data to and receive data from the device. Public IPv4 addresses are routable on the internet, meaning that they can be used to communicate directly with devices on the internet.
There are a limited number of IPv4 addresses available, as IPv4 uses a 32-bit addressing scheme, which allows for a maximum of approximately 4.3 billion unique addresses. Because of this, many ISPs use network address translation (NAT) to allow multiple devices on a private network to share a single public IPv4 address.
Find IP address with ip addr command in Linux
To find the IP address of a device running Linux, you can use the ip command with the addr subcommand.
For example, to find the IP address of the device’s primary network interface, you can use the following command:
ip addr show
This will show a list of all the network interfaces on the device, along with their corresponding IP addresses. For example, you might see output like this:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:11:22:33:44:55 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.100/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
In this example, the device has two network interfaces: lo (the loopback interface) and eth0 (an Ethernet interface). The IP address of the device is 192.168.1.100, which is assigned to the eth0 interface.
You can also use the ip command to show the IP address of a specific network interface. For example, to show the IP address of the eth0 interface, you can use the following command:
ip addr show eth0
This will show only the information for the eth0 interface, including its IP address.
Get Ip address with ifconfig command in Linux
To get the IP address of a Linux machine, you can use the ifconfig command. This command displays information about the network interfaces on the system, including their IP addresses.
To get the IP address of a specific interface, use the following syntax:
ifconfig interface
For example, to get the IP address of the eth0 interface, you would run:
ifconfig eth0
This will display a variety of information about the interface, including its IP address, netmask, and broadcast address.
You can also use the ip command to get the IP address of a Linux machine. The syntax for this command is similar to ifconfig, but it provides more detailed and accurate information about the network configuration.
For example, to get the IP address of the eth0 interface using the ip command, you would run:
ip addr show eth0
This will display the IP address, netmask, and other information about the eth0 interface.
Get Ip address with ip route command in Linux
The ip route command is used to view and manipulate the routing table in a Linux system. The routing table is a database that stores information about the networks and hosts that the system can reach, and the routes that should be used to reach them.
To get the IP address of a Linux machine using the ip route command, you can use the following syntax:
ip route get address
For example, to get the IP address of the local machine, you can use the following command:
ip route get 8.8.8.8
This will display the route that the system would use to reach the destination IP address (in this case, 8.8.8.8, which is the IP address of one of Google’s public DNS servers). The output will include the IP address of the local machine, as well as the interface that would be used to reach the destination.
Note that the ip route command is not the recommended way to get the IP address of a Linux machine. Instead, it is recommended to use the ifconfig or ip addr commands, as these commands are specifically designed to display information about network interfaces and their IP addresses.
Check IP address with Bash script in Linux
To check the IP address of a Linux machine using a Bash script, you can use a combination of the ifconfig or ip command and the grep command to extract the relevant information.
Here is an example Bash script that uses the ifconfig command to get the IP address of the eth0 interface:
!/bin/bash
Get the IP address of the eth0 interface
ip_address=$(ifconfig eth0 | grep ‘inet ‘ | awk ‘{print $2}’)
Print the IP address
echo “The IP address of the eth0 interface is: $ip_address”
This script uses the grep command to search for the line that contains the IP address, and the awk command to extract the IP address from the output of ifconfig.
You can also use the ip command in a similar way to get the IP address of a Linux machine using a Bash script. For example:
!/bin/bash
Get the IP address of the eth0 interface
ip_address=$(ip addr show eth0 | grep ‘inet ‘ | awk ‘{print $2}’ | cut -d ‘/’ -f 1)
Print the IP address
echo “The IP address of the eth0 interface is: $ip_address”
This script uses the ip command to get information about the eth0 interface, and the cut command to remove the netmask from the IP address.
You can modify these scripts to get the IP address of a different interface or to display the IP address in a different format. You can also use these scripts as a starting point for more complex scripts that perform other network-related tasks.
Finding your IP address in the GNOME desktop
To find the IP address of a computer running the GNOME desktop environment, you can follow these steps:
1.Open the system menu by clicking the “Activities” button in the top left corner of the screen.
2.In the search bar, type “Network” and press Enter.
3.The Network settings window will open.
4.In the left sidebar, click on the connection that you want to check the IP address for. This could be a wired or wireless connection.
5.The IP address will be displayed in the “IPv4” or “IPv6” field, depending on the type of address that the connection is using.
Alternatively, you can use the ifconfig or ip command in a terminal to get the IP address of a Linux machine. For example, to get the IP address of the eth0 interface, you can run the following command:
ifconfig eth0
Or, to get the IP address using the ip command:
ip addr show eth0
These commands will display the IP address, as well as other information about the network interface.