Find your own IP address

A protocol is a set of rules which two computers follow to communicate with each other over a network. Internet Protocol (IP) is a very popular protocol which computers use worldwide to communicate over a network. This network may be local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) or the popular international network called internet.

When a computer is connected to a network using the internet protocol, it is assigned a unique number or set of numbers called IP address. This is used to identify your computer on the network. When you connect to internet, you also get an IP address for your computer over the internet. This article discusses how to find out your internet IP address.

External vs internal IP address

Some users connect to internet through routers or local area networks. The router also acts like a mini local area network. So these type of internet users have two ip addresses – one for their local area network and one for the internet. The ip address they get for their local area network is called the internal ip address., because nobody outside their local area network uses this ip address to identify their computer. The ip address they get for the internet is called the external ip address, because everyone outside their local area network (over the internet) uses this ip address to identify their computer.

Finding internal IP address

In Windows, open command prompt by pressing Windows key + R, typing cmd in the Run dialog that opens and pressing Enter. This would a command prompt window. In that window, you can type ipconfig and press Enter to find out your local area network ip address or internal ip address. In the following, picture a run of ipconfig command is shown. You can see the internal ip address is 192.168.1.2.

find ip address

Finding external (or internet) IP address

There are many ways to find your internet or external ip address. First of all you must be connected to the internet before you can have an internet ip address. Then follow any of the following methods :

  1. Method 1

    Point your browser to this page : http://www.whatismyip.com/

  2. Method 2
    1. Open Run dialog in Windows by pressing key combination Windows Key + R.
    2. Type cmd in the Run dialog and press Enter. This would open a command prompt window.
    3. In this command prompt window, type nslookup myip.opendns.com and press Enter. The OpenDNS servers would tell your your IP address as seen by them. This is shown in the following picture :

      NSLookup find ip address

Using these methods you can find your own IP address whether it is your internal local area network address or whether it is your ip address over the internet. After all everyone has a right to know his/her own IP address.