89

Is there a command by which I can find my external IP of my router or my NAT\DSL Router, etc., eliminating the need to visit whatsmyip.net or similar.

1

15 Answers 15

19

There is no built-in command to do this. Part of the problem is that when you are connected to the internet through a router, your network hardware is not directly connected to the internet, so your system isn't specifically assigned an IP. It's possible you might even have multiple external IPs in some cases if you are behind a reverse proxy, as many corporate networks are set up. Your best bet might be to create a script which queries whatismyip.org, or trying to find if one already exists.

(As a tip, whatismyip.org is preferable to most other solutions, since it just returns your IP as plain text - no superfluous text, links, images or other garbage. It would be much easier to use in a custom script than most of the other IP-detection sites.)

3
  • 9
    They changed whatismyip.org, unfortunately; the IP address is now returned as an image, making it pretty much useless for scripting. The website "icanhazip.com" mentioned below does work.
    – onnodb
    Nov 29, 2012 at 13:53
  • Yandex is working, check the script posted below. Dec 5, 2013 at 15:42
  • Working native command from below superuser.com/a/722397/216374
    – PsychoData
    Jan 3, 2019 at 19:54
162

You could use a DNS request instead of HTTP request to find out your public IP:

C:\> nslookup myip.opendns.com. resolver1.opendns.com

It uses resolver1.opendns.com dns server to resolve the magical myip.opendns.com. hostname to your ip address. (Note: the trailing . on the lookup prevents search domains from being appended, which can yield incorrect results.)

Unix version:

$ dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com
9
  • 4
    Worked like a charm.
    – B.K.
    Jun 29, 2014 at 4:15
  • 2
    brilliant, works without installing anything too.
    – ericosg
    Sep 7, 2015 at 11:54
  • Didn't work for me anymore in November, 2017, on Windows 10. PowerShell answer from Bradley Forney works.
    – Jason
    Nov 8, 2017 at 23:58
  • 1
    Worked for me still (Windows 10, Dec 2017). Very clever @jfs, do OpenDNS have this documented somewhere how did you discover it? Dec 21, 2017 at 13:48
  • 10
    This should be the accepted answer, since it provides an actual command, and it works. The accepted answer tells there is no command (which is proved false), and suggests using a script, without really giving further direction.
    – CyberClaw
    Mar 23, 2018 at 12:41
49

grab your own copy of curlfrom http://curl.haxx.se/download.html and then just

curl "http://myexternalip.com/raw"

or use powershell:

$wc = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$wc.DownloadString("http://myexternalip.com/raw")

(disclaimer: http://myexternalip.com was created by me)

3
  • That only provides an IPv6 address. Is there a way to get the IPv4 address?
    – tim11g
    Dec 1, 2018 at 19:35
  • I kept reading and found the IPv4 / IPv6 examples below for Powershell. It is possible to get IPv4 with CURL like this "C:>curl "myip.dnsomatic.com"
    – tim11g
    Dec 1, 2018 at 19:39
  • Thanks. A shorter PowerShell command would be "(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri myexternalip.com/raw).Content" that just returns the URL. Dec 8, 2020 at 8:48
10

This works nicely, I use it mostly with psexec when inspecting client computer connections.

nslookup myip.opendns.com resolver1.opendns.com
7

Create a file named ip.vbs and copy the following into it:

Option Explicit
Dim http : Set http = CreateObject( "MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp" )
http.Open "GET", "http://icanhazip.com", False
http.Send
Wscript.Echo http.responseText   'or do whatever you want with it
Set http = Nothing

Execute using

C:\>cscript ip.vbs

As nhinkle noted, it's best to choose a site that only returns the IP and not HTML + ads, etc. like:

(source: formerly http://externip.com/about)

7

With Powershell 3.0 (Windows 7 default is 2.0) you can use Invoke-WebRequest

For IPv4:

$tmp =Invoke-WebRequest -URI http://myip.dnsomatic.com/
$tmp.Content

For IPv6:

$tmp =Invoke-WebRequest -URI http://myexternalip.com/raw
$tmp.Content

This will give you a variable to work with if you have something specific you want to do with it. I'm actually using this to build a script to upload my router's dynamic IP periodically, have another machine test communication to it at regular intervals, and then update DNS with the latest IP if it has changed so I can access my gear from anywhere by using a name instead of having to constantly chase down the IP.

And of course - as the sites change or their outputs change you'll want to update this accordingly. :)

3
  • This approach worked great for me on windows 10. I needed a one-line command, so ran the above in quotes after powershell.exe -noprofile -command "". Separate the line-break with a semicolon...
    – Jason
    Nov 8, 2017 at 23:57
  • 2
    Oneliner? Just run (Invoke-WebRequest -URI http://myip.dnsomatic.com).Content
    – merosss
    Apr 11, 2018 at 21:18
  • 1
    For me it says that Internet Explorer engine is not available so i have to append the -UseBasicParsing parameter like this: (Invoke-WebRequest -URI http://myip.dnsomatic.com -UseBasicParsing).Content
    – Lorenzo
    Jan 31, 2022 at 12:22
5

I made this batch script to do that a few months ago:

@echo off

:: WhatIsMyIP.cmd - returns public IP address
:: requires: wget.exe

if [%1]==[-h] goto :HELP
if [%1]==[--help] goto :HELP
if [%1]==[/?] goto :HELP

wget -q -O %temp%\MyIP http://www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp
for /f "delims= " %%G in (%temp%\myip) do set PublicIP=%%G & del %temp%\MyIP
echo. & echo Your public IP address is %PublicIP% & echo.
if [%1]==[--clip] echo %PublicIP% | clip
goto :EOF

:HELP
echo. & echo Usage: whatismyip [--clip] & echo.
goto :EOF

:EOF

It gives you the option to put the IP address in the clipboard and it sets an environmental variable - %PublicIP%.


SIMPLER METHOD:

Now, I just do this instead:

curl icanhazip.com

or...

curl icanhazip.com | clip

...to get the current public IP address into the clipboard.

You need cURL.

1
  • 1
    The script from paradroid worked fine but whatsmyip moved the web page to automation.whatismyip.com/n09230945.asp If you change to this, it works perfect.
    – user129064
    Apr 19, 2012 at 6:52
3

Try this:
Doesn't need any kind of external software installed.

@set @script=0 /*
  @echo off
    set @script=
    cscript //nologo //e:jscript "%~dpnx0"
  exit /b
*/

with (new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP')) {
   open('GET', 'http://internet.yandex.ru/', false);
   send();

   WScript.echo(responseText.match(/IPv4:\s(\d+\.){3}\d+/g));
}
3

Without third party programs is hard on Windows as Telnet isn't supplied by default, but, if it is there (XP) or turned on (Windows Vista and above), simply type:

telnet curlmyip.com 80

the screen will flash, and you will just get a cursor... Next type:

GET

In capital letters... you will then see the headers, followed by your ip (and sorry I blurred it, just showing where it would be!):

enter image description here

Other answers here obviously work, but, I'm trying to keep to the question on something that can be used on any windows, without third party programs!

For Windows Vista and above, you can install telnet easily (and safely) through Programs and features, or use the following command:

pkgmgr /iu:”TelnetClient”
2
  • That (and most of the answers!) does assume that the source website picks up your ip address accurately - some types of proxies mess this up. I was scraping my ip address off my router cause of this. Interestingly, in these cases, a website that uses a non standard port may work fine.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Jan 15, 2014 at 1:21
  • Not working with curlmyip.com, but tested working with checkip.dyndns.org. Dec 7, 2014 at 13:04
2

You can use ifcfg.me. it supports some internal commands that come with windows by default.

curl ifcfg.me
nslookup . ifcfg.me
telnet ifcfg.me
ftp ifcfg.me
finger @ifcfg.me
0

I wanted to have a solution which works for Windows without installing third party tools. So I took the powershell option, which should run a script every hour.

You create this script with Notepad

$wc = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$ip = $wc.DownloadString("http://myexternalip.com/raw")
$LogTime = Get-Date -Format "MM-dd-yyyy_hh-mm-ss"
Add-Content C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\logs\IPLog.txt $LogTime
Add-Content C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\logs\IPLog.txt "`n"
Add-Content C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\logs\IPLog.txt $ip
Add-Content C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\logs\IPLog.txt "`n"

and save it as getIP.ps1 somewhere. You can call this script either directly in powershell or use the task planer as I did. This is the command for executing:

powershell -executionpolicy bypass -File C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\getIP.ps1

In the task scheduler you create a new task. At Trigger you use the setting daily for every 1 day and under advanced option you choose every hour for the duration of immediately. Also check Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed in the Settings. Under Action you paste the above execution code.

The powershell code can be optimized, because I'm no powershell guru (my first time with it). Now I'm testing if the script is called every hour.

0

Here is what I figured out, it's possible to use in-built command to get public IP address but you do have access to internet

telnet icanhazip.com

or

telnet myip.gelma.net
1
  • Good catch! Although icanhazip.com won’t work for me and the other one doesn’t do IPv6 properly. :)
    – Daniel B
    Mar 22, 2015 at 15:32
0

Newest Windows have curl command build-in. Just type

curl ip-adresim.app

and it will return your public IPv4 or IPv6.

0

From Powershell:

(Invoke-WebRequest -uri "http://ifconfig.me/ip").Content

Credit: http://woshub.com/get-external-ip-powershell/

-1

ipchicken.com will return your apparent IP address in text format if you can parse the returning HTML you extract your router's external IP. Alternately you can install one of those dynamic DNS agents that updates your apparent external IP to an FQDN and then just do nslookup on your FQDN to see your current IP number. There used to be free ones like DynDNS but most of them now require a paid subscription account.

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