Do you need to check your IP for some purposes, or you need to check the IP address of someone else? We know how to do it. How to find IP address?
How to check your computer’s IP
In MS Windows XP, after entering the START menu, select the “run” command. A window will open in which you must type CMD and press ENTER on the keyboard. A command prompt window will start, where we type “ipconfig” and press ENTER again.
How to check your computer’s IP in Windows 10
If you can’t find the command line this way, there is one more method that works especially for Windows Vista and Windows 7, 8 / 8.1 and 10. Just click the system search engine, type CMD and the command line window should appear, which you need to run and then continue as described above.
And how to check the router’s IP address? After entering the “ipconfig” command in the command window, in addition to the computer’s IP address, information about the subnet mask and default gateway will also be displayed, which is also the router’s IP address.
Public IP
The public address is the address at which our computer or our network is visible outside (colloquially speaking “from the Internet”). This address is also assigned to us automatically by our internet provider. Recently, however, a trend can be seen when ISPs are introducing their own subnets and connecting several or even a dozen or so clients to one external IP address. This is due to the lack of addresses in the IPv4 protocol. Virtually all mobile operators, as well as some “cable TV” use such practices. In times of cloud services, the external IP address is slowly losing its importance.
Public IP address of your computer
The public address of our computer is a bit more complex issue. First of all, if you are connected to a router, i.e. your computer has only a local address, it is not visible from the outside. In this case, only the router has an external address (also not always for the reasons described above). If you are connected directly to a modem provided by your ISP, you can check the IP address in the same way as the one described above for the local address. With the proviso that this will not always be your public address.
If we have a router, we need to know its address (it is most often the address of the default gateway shown in the picture above) and login and password. After logging in, we are looking for information about the assigned WAN address. Most often it will be already provided on the main page, possibly in the WAN or Status section.
To make sure that the IP address belongs to the public sphere, you need to compare the value provided by the router with information that can be obtained e.g. on this page. If the addresses match, then your operator assigns public addresses. If they differ, it means you don’t really have an IP address visible from the outside.
