How to Find Public and Private IP Address

How to Track an IP address

Here in this post, I want to talk about IP Address and how you can check your IP address.

Whats an IP Address??

IP address stands for Internet Protocol Address. The IP address is allocated to every device that is connected to the internet. Ip address can be described as a string of numbers which are separated by dots to identify each device that uses internet protocol to communicate over the internet. No device can have the same IP address. There are two versions of IPs: IPv4 and IPv6.

IP address in IPv4 looks like: 109.34.11.121 and IP address of IPv6 looks like 1243:1102:1234::1111

Now there are also two types of IPs – 1) Public IP and 2) Private IP

Public IPs are the one which is used by the server or the service when you logged to them using your Internet connections. And private IPs are those whose ranges are reserved for private networks like LAN(Local Area Network).

Device with their private IP cannot connect to the internet and in the same way devices outside the private IP range cannot connect directly to the devices. But it is possible to connect them using a router or other devices which can do Network Address Translation.

How to find your Public and Private IP??

Well for the public IP it is easy to find out. There are lots of site like www.ipchicken.com , www.whatsmyip.org, and www.whatismyipaddress.com. This sites will work on any devices that are connected to the internet like your Pc, android phone, iPhone, iPad etc. A public IP address can be static or dynamic IP. Static public IP address does not change and its permanent and it is used in web hosting or other such services. And dynamic IP address is like a temporary IP address which changes everytime a device get connected to the internet.

and when it comes to finding your private IP address, it's not that easy as just typing an URL. To find the Private IP you can follow steps:

In Windows machine, you can find out by using the command prompt. In command prompt, you have to type ipconfig and hit enter.

In MacOS to find the private IP, you have to open your terminal and type ifconfig and hit enter.

And for Linux, open your terminal and type any of the following commands hostname -I(capital i), ifconfig or ip addr show.

For iPhone, iPad and iPod goto setting app in your wifi menu and click the I button next to networks the device is connected to.

And for Android device goto Setting> Wi-Fi > and hit the wifi setting button above. ( make sure you are connected to a wifi network first)