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How to Find IP Address on Mac Using the Command Line

Knowing how to find your IP address on Mac can be useful for various purposes, such as troubleshooting network issues, setting up remote access, or configuring firewalls. In this article, we will show you how to find your IP address on Mac using the command line, which is a powerful and versatile tool that can perform many tasks.

How to Find IP Address on Mac Using the Command Line

How to Find Local IP Address on Mac Using the Command Line

To find your local IP address on Mac using the command line, you can use the ifconfig command, which displays information about your network interfaces. To use this command, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type ifconfig and press Enter. You will see a list of network interfaces, such as en0en1lo0, etc.
  3. Look for the interface that corresponds to your connection type, such as en0 for Ethernet or en1 for Wi-Fi. You can identify the connection type by looking at the type field in the output.
  4. Look for the inet field under the interface name. This is your local IP address, which is usually in the format of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where xxx is a number between 0 and 255. For example, inet 192.168.1.10 means your local IP address is 192.168.1.10.

Alternatively, you can use the ipconfig command, which is similar to the ifconfig command but displays less information. To use this command, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type ipconfig getifaddr en0 and press Enter. This will display your local IP address for the Ethernet interface. If you are using Wi-Fi, replace en0 with en1.
  3. Note down your local IP address, which is displayed in the same format as the ifconfig command.

How to Find Public IP Address on Mac Using the Command Line

To find your public IP address on Mac using the command line, you can use the curl command, which is a tool that transfers data from or to a server. To use this command, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type curl ifconfig.me and press Enter. This will display your public IP address, which is usually in the format of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, where xxx is a number between 0 and 255. For example, curl ifconfig.me may return 203.0.113.25 as your public IP address.
  3. Note down your public IP address, which is displayed in the same format as the ifconfig command.

Alternatively, you can use other websites that provide the same service, such as icanhazip.com or myip.opendns.com. To use these websites, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type curl icanhazip.com or curl myip.opendns.com and press Enter. This will display your public IP address, which is displayed in the same format as the ifconfig command.
  3. Note down your public IP address, which is displayed in the same format as the ifconfig command.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you how to find your IP address on Mac using the command line, which is a useful skill for any Mac user. You can use the ifconfig or ipconfig commands to find your local IP address, and the curl command to find your public IP address. You can also use other websites that provide the same service, such as icanhazip.com or myip.opendns.com.