Video summary
This video explains the concept and utility of public IP addresses, distinguishing them from local IP addresses assigned by routers to devices within a private network. While a local IP is essential for connecting to computers on your own home network, your public IP address serves as the unique identifier for your entire network on the internet. Understanding this distinction is crucial for tasks such as running remote servers or accessing home computers from outside your local network, as these operations require knowledge of your public-facing address.
The presenter demonstrates several practical methods for retrieving this information, ranging from using third-party websites that echo back the visitor's IP to utilizing command-line tools like wget or curl. A particularly useful approach highlighted is creating a simple PHP script on your own web server that outputs the remote client's IP address via the $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] variable. By hosting such a script at a specific URL, you can create a permanent, easy-to-remember link that provides your current public IP address in plain text whenever anyone visits it.
However, the video notes that public IP addresses are not static and can change frequently depending on your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The speaker shares his experience with Comcast, noting that while changes used to happen often, they now occur only occasionally after network outages or updates, though other ISPs might change addresses daily or even hourly. To manage this volatility, the presenter describes setting up automated scripts that run periodically to check for IP changes and update a domain name accordingly, or alternatively, sending text notifications when an address shift is detected.
Ultimately, the video concludes by emphasizing the importance of having your own method to track your public IP address rather than relying solely on external services. Maintaining a personal script or dedicated page offers significant advantages, such as easier memorization and real-time awareness of location-based data that ISPs can use to pinpoint your connection within a few miles or blocks. The presenter strongly recommends setting up this functionality yourself, as it ensures you always have accurate access to your network's identity regardless of how often your ISP decides to change it.
Read the full video transcript
Hello, and welcome to a video from
filmsbychris.com. That's Chris with a K.
I'm Chris with a K. Today, we're going
to be looking at your public IP address.
Well, not specific specifically yours,
but you will be able to look at yours.
Your computer and anything on your
network gets an IP address
handed to it from the router. This is my
local IP address. If I want to connect
to this computer from another computer
that's on my local network, this is the
IP address I need. But, you also have
your public IP address, which is the IP
address that leads to your network. So,
if you want to run a server and connect
to your computers at home remotely,
you're going to need to know your IP
address. And there's different ways you
can do that. You can use wget or curl.
And there's lots of websites out there
that will just echo out the IP address
you're connecting from. So, here's an
example. Here's an example. Here's an
example. Oh, that's the same one. And
here's an example.
There's also ifconfig.me.
There's a bunch of them out there. This
is great, but can we do it ourselves?
Well, if I was to come up here and go
filmsbychris.com, I'm going to give this
a dash L because my website does some
forwarding. I get my IP address. I can
also uh I think
that should work, too. No, I think I
still need the L for that. Anyway,
filmsbychris.com/myip.
You can use that if you want. You can
curl it just like I did. But, let's see
how we do that. Go to my web server.
This is my web server right here. I'm in
my web directory. This is the PHP file.
This is it.
This is a variable that is the client
that's connected to the server. It's the
remote address. It's their address, and
we're just echoing it back. That's all
we're doing. That's all you need to do.
So, if you have a web server running
PHP, this is all you need to do to echo
out the IP address. And obviously, we're
only working with IPV4 here. Um
and now anybody who requests that is
going to get that out in plain text.
Uh so, that's super useful. And of
course, you can use my link if you want.
I'll just leave that up. Um but,
you can do this on your own system. And
I highly recommend you doing it. One,
because it's easier to remember.
Um but, also at the same time,
your IP address isn't private
information, but it's still information
about you. With your IP address, I can
tell within range, within a couple of
miles, where you're connecting from,
unless you're going through some sort of
proxy server, right? Um which is not a
big deal, but I can know that, you know,
you're in Orlando, Florida, and even
like within a couple of blocks of
Orlando, Florida.
Uh and we can look at it doing that,
figuring that out in with a script in a
future video. Uh but you know, if you
can do stuff yourself, do stuff
yourself. Uh so, I have it up on
filmsbychris.com. My personal IP
address, my my public IP address for my
home network, I have Comcast. I do not
have a static IP. You can pay for an IP
address that never changes.
Uh I personally don't, but in the last 5
years, Comcast has changed my IP address
maybe two or three times, and it's
usually after long outages when they're
doing uh network updates in the area.
So, it doesn't Back in the day, it used
to change all the time. Now, it very
rarely changes. But your ISP might
change daily or even hourly. Well, if
you have a server that you can access
all time, like I have filmsbychris
uh for my web server,
I have a script at home that runs every
couple of minutes, grabs my IP address,
and updates the domain that I have for
my house, and also uh before I had a
domain pointed towards my house, I uh
used to have it where if the IP address
changed, it would just text me. It
didn't happen all the time, but I'd get
a text, "Your IP address changed. This
is the new one." And then I could also,
if I was to SSH in, I could do like SSH
and then for the IP address, I would
just do like uh curl, and I would run
that curl command, you know, to
filmsbychris.com.
Uh well, no, that doesn't make sense.
What I'm saying doesn't make sense.
>> [laughter]
>> Uh I actually had another script on my
server that would actually uh when I
updated, it was my own personal uh PHP
file, and when I connected, it logged
that, and I would be able to call that
from Films By Chris and get my home IP
address. And it would update regularly.
I hope that makes sense what I just
said. But, my point is, one line, one
variable can get you your IP address if
you have a server that you have access
to. This is a great thing to have.
Um
just lets you constantly keep track of
your IP address.
Thanks for watching, as always. I hope
that you have a great day.