The Quickest Way To Learn How To Know My Ip Address Command Prompt

Nima Elba

3 min read

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20-01-2025

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Knowing your IP address is crucial for troubleshooting network issues, accessing network settings, and even for security purposes. While there are many ways to find your IP address, using the command prompt offers a quick and efficient method, particularly if you're comfortable navigating a command-line interface. This guide will show you the quickest way to discover your IP address using the command prompt.

Understanding IP Addresses

Before we dive into the commands, let's briefly understand what an IP address is. An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. It's essentially your device's address on the internet. There are two main types:

• IPv4: This is the older version, represented by four sets of numbers separated by periods (e.g., 192.168.1.100).
• IPv6: This is the newer, more expansive version, using hexadecimal numbers and colons (e.g., 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334).

You'll likely see either an IPv4 or IPv6 address, or possibly both, depending on your network configuration.

Finding Your IP Address Using Command Prompt (Windows)

The command prompt provides a direct way to access your network information. Here's how to do it on a Windows machine:

1. Open Command Prompt: Search for "cmd" in the Windows search bar and select "Command Prompt." You can also press Win + R, type cmd, and press Enter.

2. Use the ipconfig Command: Type ipconfig and press Enter. This command displays a wealth of network information, including your IP address(es).

3. Locate Your IP Address: Look for the section labeled "Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi" (or "Ethernet adapter Ethernet" if you're using a wired connection). Within this section, you'll find the IPv4 Address and potentially the IPv6 Address. These are your IP addresses.

Example Output:

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . . . . . . : home
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . . . . : fe80::a2b3:c4d5:e6f7:890a%13
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

In this example, 192.168.1.100 is the IPv4 address.

Finding Your IP Address Using Command Prompt (macOS/Linux)

On macOS and Linux systems, the process is slightly different. You’ll typically use the ip command:

1. Open Terminal: On macOS, you can find Terminal in Applications > Utilities. On Linux, the method varies depending on your distribution, but you can usually find it in your applications menu.

2. Use the ip addr or ifconfig command: Type ip addr and press Enter. (On some older systems, ifconfig might be used instead).

3. Locate Your IP Address: The output will show various network interfaces. Look for the interface you're using (e.g., wlan0, eth0) and find the line containing inet followed by the IP address. This is your IPv4 address. IPv6 addresses will be indicated with inet6.

Example Output (ip addr):

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
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
    valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: en0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.101/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute en0
    inet6 fe80::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx%en0/64 scope link
    valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Here, 192.168.1.101 is the IPv4 address.

This information empowers you to quickly check your network status and troubleshoot any connectivity problems. Remember to consult your system documentation if you encounter any issues or variations in command output.