How to Check the IP Address in Linux

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Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: July 30, 2024 Tested

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This wikiHow teaches you how to view your computer's private and public IP addresses on a Linux computer.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Finding Your Public IP Address

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The public IP address is what websites and services see when you access them from your computer. If you want to try to connect to your computer via a remote connection that isn't on the same network, you'll need the public IP address.
Click or double-click the Terminal app icon, or press Ctrl+Alt+T to bring up the Terminal window.

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Type curl ifconfig.me into the Terminal window. This command retrieves your public IP address from a website.^{[1]
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Doing so runs the command.
The IP address that appears below the command you entered is the public IP address for your network.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Finding Your Private IP Address

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If you're trying to find the IP address of your computer within your Wi-Fi network (e.g., if you want to forward your router for your computer), you'll need to know the IP address.
Click or double-click the Terminal app icon, or press Ctrl+Alt+T to bring up the Terminal window.
3
Enter the "Show IP" command. Type ifconfig into the Terminal window. Other commands you can try include the following:
- ip addr
- ip a
Doing so runs your command and displays the IP address information of any network items, including your computer.
You'll usually find your computer's information under the "wlo1" (or "wlan0") heading, just right of the "inet" tag.
6
Review the private IP address. The IPv4 address is to the right of the "inet" tag. This is the IP address of your computer on your current network.
- You can usually see the IPv6 address next to the "inet6" tag. The IPv6 address is less commonly used than the IPv4 address.
On some Linux versions, such as Ubuntu, you can bring up your computer's IP address by typing in hostname -I (that's a capital "i", not a lower-case "L") and pressing ↵ Enter.

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What is an IP address?

Pingu

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It is a label that consists of four numbers separated by dots. Every computer with an internet connection is assigned an IP address. It is used so that computers can connect to each other. If you write the name of a web page into your browser's address bar, it actually looks up what IP that name refers to and then connects with that IP.

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How can I find someone else's IP address using my own device?

Pingu

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If the device the IP of which you're trying to find has a domain name, you can use the "nslookup" function. So for example, "nslookup google.com" would give you the IP address of one of Google's servers. If it doesn't, and the device connected to your device at some time, one of the many logs (located at /var/log) can contain its IP address. Other than that, there is no way to find someone else's IP address from your device, but you can use theirs.

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What would I enter at the command prompt (terminal) on a Linux system to display a list of files and sub directories that exist within the present working directory?

Somone

Community Answer

You can type "ls" (without quotes) to list the files and directories in the present working directory and "ls -a" to list everything, including all hidden files.

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Your private IP address is the number assigned to your computer within your wireless network, while your public IP address is the address assigned to your network.

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