CODEWITHSUNDEEP
clinuxsocketsnetwork-programmingudp
Eric
Eric

Reputation: 2705

Getting my own IP address by connect()ing using UDP socket?

I've heard that I can get my own IP address(not 127.0.0.1), by creating a UDP socket and connecting() to a valid destination IP address like Google.

However, I could not find any reference or example for this.

Is this possible? If so, how can I do this?

char* get_my_ip() {
    int sockfd;
    struct sockaddr_storage remoteaddr; // client address
    socklen_t addrlen;
    char remoteIP[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
    char *ip_addr;
    ip_addr = malloc(sizeof(char) * INET6_ADDRSTRLEN);
    int rv;

    struct addrinfo hints, *ai, *p;

    memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
    hints.ai_family = AF_INET;
    hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_DGRAM;
    if ((rv = getaddrinfo("8.8.8.8", "http", &hints, &ai)) != 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n", gai_strerror(rv));
        exit(1);
    }
    // loop through all the results and make a socket
    for(p = ai; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
        if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
            p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
            perror("UDP: socket");
            continue;
        }

        if (connect(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {
            close(sockfd);
            perror("UDP: connect");
            continue;
        }
        break;
    }
    if (p == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "UDP: failed to bind socket\n");
        exit(2);
    }

    getsockname(sockfd, (struct sockaddr*)&remoteaddr, &addrlen);

    // deal with both IPv4 and IPv6:
    if (remoteaddr.ss_family == AF_INET) {
        struct sockaddr_in *s = (struct sockaddr_in *)&remoteaddr;
        inet_ntop(AF_INET, &s->sin_addr, remoteIP, addrlen);
    }
    else { // AF_INET6
        struct sockaddr_in6 *s = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)&remoteaddr;
        inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &s->sin6_addr, remoteIP, addrlen);
    }
    printf("IP_ADDRESS:%s", remoteIP);

    freeaddrinfo(ai); // all done with this structure
    close(sockfd);

    strcpy(ip_addr, remoteIP);
    return ip_addr;
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1319

Answers (1)

user207421
user207421

Reputation: 310869

Call connect() and then getsockname() on your socket. It will return the IP address the socket is now bound to, which has been chosen by the IP routing tables as the best route to the target address.

However that is not necessarily the IP address you are looking for, unless you only have one external IP address.

If you're talking about your public IP address on the other side of a modem or router, this technique has no applicability at all.

Upvotes: 2

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