[c#] Get local IP address

In the internet there are several places that show you how to get an IP address. And a lot of them look like this example:

String strHostName = string.Empty;
// Getting Ip address of local machine...
// First get the host name of local machine.
strHostName = Dns.GetHostName();
Console.WriteLine("Local Machine's Host Name: " + strHostName);
// Then using host name, get the IP address list..
IPHostEntry ipEntry = Dns.GetHostEntry(strHostName);
IPAddress[] addr = ipEntry.AddressList;

for (int i = 0; i < addr.Length; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine("IP Address {0}: {1} ", i, addr[i].ToString());
}
Console.ReadLine();

With this example I get several IP addresses, but I'm only interested in getting the one that the router assigns to the computer running the program: the IP that I would give to someone if he wishes to access a shared folder in my computer for instance.

If I am not connected to a network and I am connected to the internet directly via a modem with no router then I would like to get an error. How can I see if my computer is connected to a network with C# and if it is then to get the LAN IP address.

@mrcheif I found this answer today and it was very useful although it did return a wrong IP (not due to the code not working) but it gave the wrong internetwork IP when you have such things as Himachi running.

public static string localIPAddress()
{
    IPHostEntry host;
    string localIP = "";
    host = Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName());

    foreach (IPAddress ip in host.AddressList)
    {
        localIP = ip.ToString();

        string[] temp = localIP.Split('.');

        if (ip.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork && temp[0] == "192")
        {
            break;
        }
        else
        {
            localIP = null;
        }
    }

    return localIP;
}

There is a more accurate way when there are multi ip addresses available on local machine. Connect a UDP socket and read its local endpoint:

string localIP;
using (Socket socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, 0))
{
    socket.Connect("8.8.8.8", 65530);
    IPEndPoint endPoint = socket.LocalEndPoint as IPEndPoint;
    localIP = endPoint.Address.ToString();
}

Connect on a UDP socket has the following effect: it sets the destination for Send/Recv, discards all packets from other addresses, and - which is what we use - transfers the socket into "connected" state, settings its appropriate fields. This includes checking the existence of the route to the destination according to the system's routing table and setting the local endpoint accordingly. The last part seems to be undocumented officially but it looks like an integral trait of Berkeley sockets API (a side effect of UDP "connected" state) that works reliably in both Windows and Linux across versions and distributions.

So, this method will give the local address that would be used to connect to the specified remote host. There is no real connection established, hence the specified remote ip can be unreachable.

Imports System.Net
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Function LocalIP()
    Dim strHostName = Dns.GetHostName
    Dim Host = Dns.GetHostEntry(strHostName)
    For Each ip In Host.AddressList
        If ip.AddressFamily = AddressFamily.InterNetwork Then
            txtIP.Text = ip.ToString
        End If
    Next

    Return True
End Function

Below same action

Function LocalIP()

   Dim Host As String =Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName).AddressList(1).MapToIPv4.ToString

   txtIP.Text = Host

   Return True

End Function

I know this may be kicking a dead horse, but maybe this can help someone. I have looked all over the place for a way to find my local IP address, but everywhere I find it says to use:

Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName());

I don't like this at all because it just gets all the addresses assigned to your computer. If you have multiple network interfaces (which pretty much all computers do now-a-days) you have no idea which address goes with which network interface. After doing a bunch of research I created a function to use the NetworkInterface class and yank the information out of it. This way I can tell what type of interface it is (Ethernet, wireless, loopback, tunnel, etc.), whether it is active or not, and SOOO much more.

public string GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType _type)
{
    string output = "";
    foreach (NetworkInterface item in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces())
    {
        if (item.NetworkInterfaceType == _type && item.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up)
        {
            foreach (UnicastIPAddressInformation ip in item.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses)
            {
                if (ip.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                {
                    output = ip.Address.ToString();
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return output;
}

Now to get the IPv4 address of your Ethernet network interface call:

GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType.Ethernet);

Or your Wireless interface:

GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType.Wireless80211);

If you try to get an IPv4 address for a wireless interface, but your computer doesn't have a wireless card installed it will just return an empty string. Same thing with the Ethernet interface.

Hope this helps someone! :-)

EDIT:

It was pointed out (thanks @NasBanov) that even though this function goes about extracting the IP address in a much better way than using Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName()) it doesn't do very well at supporting multiple interfaces of the same type or multiple IP addresses on a single interface. It will only return a single IP address when there may be multiple addresses assigned. To return ALL of these assigned addresses you could simply manipulate the original function to always return an array instead of a single string. For example:

public static string[] GetAllLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType _type)
{
    List<string> ipAddrList = new List<string>();
    foreach (NetworkInterface item in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces())
    {
        if (item.NetworkInterfaceType == _type && item.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up)
        {
            foreach (UnicastIPAddressInformation ip in item.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses)
            {
                if (ip.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                {
                    ipAddrList.Add(ip.Address.ToString());
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return ipAddrList.ToArray();
}

Now this function will return ALL assigned addresses for a specific interface type. Now to get just a single string, you could use the .FirstOrDefault() extension to return the first item in the array or, if it's empty, return an empty string.

GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType.Ethernet).FirstOrDefault();

Refactoring Mrcheif's code to leverage Linq (ie. .Net 3.0+). .

private IPAddress LocalIPAddress()
{
    if (!System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable())
    {
        return null;
    }

    IPHostEntry host = Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName());

    return host
        .AddressList
        .FirstOrDefault(ip => ip.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork);
}

:)

Keep in mind, in the general case you could have multiple NAT translations going on, and multiple dns servers, each operating on different NAT translation levels.

What if you have carrier grade NAT, and want to communicate with other customers of the same carrier? In the general case you never know for sure because you might appear with different host names at every NAT translation.

Updating Mrchief's answer with Linq, we will have:

public static IPAddress GetLocalIPAddress()
{
   var host = Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName());
   var ipAddress= host.AddressList.FirstOrDefault(ip => ip.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork);
   return ipAddress;
}

Here is a modified version (from compman2408's one) which worked for me:

    internal static string GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType _type)
    {  // Checks your IP adress from the local network connected to a gateway. This to avoid issues with double network cards
        string output = "";  // default output
        foreach (NetworkInterface item in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces()) // Iterate over each network interface
        {  // Find the network interface which has been provided in the arguments, break the loop if found
            if (item.NetworkInterfaceType == _type && item.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up)
            {   // Fetch the properties of this adapter
                IPInterfaceProperties adapterProperties = item.GetIPProperties();
                // Check if the gateway adress exist, if not its most likley a virtual network or smth
                if (adapterProperties.GatewayAddresses.FirstOrDefault() != null)
                {   // Iterate over each available unicast adresses
                    foreach (UnicastIPAddressInformation ip in adapterProperties.UnicastAddresses)
                    {   // If the IP is a local IPv4 adress
                        if (ip.Address.AddressFamily == System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                        {   // we got a match!
                            output = ip.Address.ToString();
                            break;  // break the loop!!
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            // Check if we got a result if so break this method
            if (output != "") { break; }
        }
        // Return results
        return output;
    }

You can call this method for example like:

GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType.Ethernet);

The change: I'm retrieving the IP from an adapter which has a gateway IP assigned to it. Second change: I've added docstrings and break statement to make this method more efficient.

Obsolete gone, this works to me

public static IPAddress GetIPAddress()
{ 
 IPAddress ip = Dns.GetHostAddresses(Dns.GetHostName()).Where(address => 
 address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork).First();
 return ip;
}

Tested with one or multiple LAN cards and Virtual machines

public static string DisplayIPAddresses()
    {
        string returnAddress = String.Empty;

        // Get a list of all network interfaces (usually one per network card, dialup, and VPN connection)
        NetworkInterface[] networkInterfaces = NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces();

        foreach (NetworkInterface network in networkInterfaces)
        {
            // Read the IP configuration for each network
            IPInterfaceProperties properties = network.GetIPProperties();

            if (network.NetworkInterfaceType == NetworkInterfaceType.Ethernet &&
                   network.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up &&
                   !network.Description.ToLower().Contains("virtual") &&
                   !network.Description.ToLower().Contains("pseudo"))
            {
                // Each network interface may have multiple IP addresses
                foreach (IPAddressInformation address in properties.UnicastAddresses)
                {
                    // We're only interested in IPv4 addresses for now
                    if (address.Address.AddressFamily != AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                        continue;

                    // Ignore loopback addresses (e.g., 127.0.0.1)
                    if (IPAddress.IsLoopback(address.Address))
                        continue;

                    returnAddress = address.Address.ToString();
                    Console.WriteLine(address.Address.ToString() + " (" + network.Name + " - " + network.Description + ")");
                }
            }
        }

       return returnAddress;
    }

Just an updated version of mine using LINQ:

/// <summary>
/// Gets the local Ipv4.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>The local Ipv4.</returns>
/// <param name="networkInterfaceType">Network interface type.</param>
IPAddress GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType networkInterfaceType)
{
    var networkInterfaces = NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces().Where(i => i.NetworkInterfaceType == networkInterfaceType && i.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up);

    foreach (var networkInterface in networkInterfaces)
    {
        var adapterProperties = networkInterface.GetIPProperties();

        if (adapterProperties.GatewayAddresses.FirstOrDefault() == null)
                continue;
        foreach (var ip in networkInterface.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses)
        {
            if (ip.Address.AddressFamily != AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                    continue;

            return ip.Address;
        }
    }

    return null;
}

string str="";

System.Net.Dns.GetHostName();

IPHostEntry ipEntry = System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntry(str);

IPAddress[] addr = ipEntry.AddressList;

string IP="Your Ip Address Is :->"+ addr[addr.Length - 1].ToString();

For a laugh, thought I'd try and get a single LINQ statement by using the new C# 6 null-conditional operator. Looks pretty crazy and probably horribly inefficient, but it works.

private string GetLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType type = NetworkInterfaceType.Ethernet)
{
    // Bastardized from: http://stackoverflow.com/a/28621250/2685650.

    return NetworkInterface
        .GetAllNetworkInterfaces()
        .FirstOrDefault(ni =>
            ni.NetworkInterfaceType == type
            && ni.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up
            && ni.GetIPProperties().GatewayAddresses.FirstOrDefault() != null
            && ni.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses.FirstOrDefault(ip => ip.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork) != null
        )
        ?.GetIPProperties()
        .UnicastAddresses
        .FirstOrDefault(ip => ip.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
        ?.Address
        ?.ToString()
        ?? string.Empty;
}

Logic courtesy of Gerardo H (and by reference compman2408).

Modified compman2408's code to be able to iterate through each NetworkInterfaceType.

public static string GetLocalIPv4 (NetworkInterfaceType _type) {
    string output = null;
    foreach (NetworkInterface item in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces ()) {
        if (item.NetworkInterfaceType == _type && item.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up) {
            foreach (UnicastIPAddressInformation ip in item.GetIPProperties ().UnicastAddresses) {
                if (ip.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork) {
                    output = ip.Address.ToString ();
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return output;
}

And you can call it like so:

static void Main (string[] args) {
    // Get all possible enum values:
    var nitVals = Enum.GetValues (typeof (NetworkInterfaceType)).Cast<NetworkInterfaceType> ();

    foreach (var nitVal in nitVals) {
        Console.WriteLine ($"{nitVal} => {GetLocalIPv4 (nitVal) ?? "NULL"}");
    }
}

I think using LINQ is easier:

Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName())
   .AddressList
   .First(x => x.AddressFamily == System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
   .ToString()

Other way to get IP using linq expression:

public static List<string> GetAllLocalIPv4(NetworkInterfaceType type)
{
    return NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces()
                   .Where(x => x.NetworkInterfaceType == type && x.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up)
                   .SelectMany(x => x.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses)
                   .Where(x => x.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                   .Select(x => x.Address.ToString())
                   .ToList();
}

This returns addresses from any interfaces that have gateway addresses and unicast addresses in two separate lists, IPV4 and IPV6.

public static (List<IPAddress> V4, List<IPAddress> V6) GetLocal()
{
    List<IPAddress> foundV4 = new List<IPAddress>();
    List<IPAddress> foundV6 = new List<IPAddress>();

    NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces().ToList().ForEach(ni =>
    {
        if (ni.GetIPProperties().GatewayAddresses.FirstOrDefault() != null)
        {
            ni.GetIPProperties().UnicastAddresses.ToList().ForEach(ua =>
            {
                if (ua.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork) foundV4.Add(ua.Address);
                if (ua.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetworkV6) foundV6.Add(ua.Address);
            });
        }
    });

    return (foundV4.Distinct().ToList(), foundV6.Distinct().ToList());
}

Using these:

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
using System.Linq;

You can use a series of LINQ methods to grab the most preferred IP address.

public static bool IsIPv4(IPAddress ipa) => ipa.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork;

public static IPAddress GetMainIPv4() => NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces()
.Select((ni)=>ni.GetIPProperties())
.Where((ip)=> ip.GatewayAddresses.Where((ga) => IsIPv4(ga.Address)).Count() > 0)
.FirstOrDefault()?.UnicastAddresses?
.Where((ua) => IsIPv4(ua.Address))?.FirstOrDefault()?.Address;

This simply finds the first Network Interface that has an IPv4 Default Gateway, and gets the first IPv4 address on that interface. Networking stacks are designed to have only one Default Gateway, and therefore the one with a Default Gateway, is the best one.

WARNING: If you have an abnormal setup where the main adapter has more than one IPv4 Address, this will grab only the first one. (The solution to grabbing the best one in that scenario involves grabbing the Gateway IP, and checking to see which Unicast IP is in the same subnet as the Gateway IP Address, which would kill our ability to create a pretty LINQ method based solution, as well as being a LOT more code)

In addition just simple code for getting Client Ip:

        public static string getclientIP()
        {
            var HostIP = HttpContext.Current != null ? HttpContext.Current.Request.UserHostAddress : "";
            return HostIP;
        }

Hope it's help you.

I also was struggling with obtaining the correct IP.

I tried a variety of the solutions here but none provided me the desired affect. Almost all of the conditional tests that was provided caused no address to be used.

This is what worked for me, hope it helps...

var firstAddress = (from address in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces().Select(x => x.GetIPProperties()).SelectMany(x => x.UnicastAddresses).Select(x => x.Address)
                    where !IPAddress.IsLoopback(address) && address.AddressFamily == System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork
                    select address).FirstOrDefault();

Console.WriteLine(firstAddress);

There is already many of answer, but I m still contributing mine one:

public static IPAddress LocalIpAddress() {
    Func<IPAddress, bool> localIpPredicate = ip =>
        ip.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork &&
        ip.ToString().StartsWith("192.168"); //check only for 16-bit block
    return Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName()).AddressList.LastOrDefault(localIpPredicate);
}

One liner:

public static IPAddress LocalIpAddress() => Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName()).AddressList.LastOrDefault(ip => ip.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork && ip.ToString().StartsWith("192.168"));

note: Search from last because it still worked after some interfaces added into device, such as MobileHotspot,VPN or other fancy virtual adapters.

Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName()).AddressList[1].MapToIPv4() //returns 192.168.14.1

This is the best code I found to get the current IP, avoiding get VMWare host or other invalid IP address.

public string GetLocalIpAddress()
{
    UnicastIPAddressInformation mostSuitableIp = null;

    var networkInterfaces = NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces();

    foreach (var network in networkInterfaces)
    {
        if (network.OperationalStatus != OperationalStatus.Up)
            continue;

        var properties = network.GetIPProperties();

        if (properties.GatewayAddresses.Count == 0)
            continue;

        foreach (var address in properties.UnicastAddresses)
        {
            if (address.Address.AddressFamily != AddressFamily.InterNetwork)
                continue;

            if (IPAddress.IsLoopback(address.Address))
                continue;

            if (!address.IsDnsEligible)
            {
                if (mostSuitableIp == null)
                    mostSuitableIp = address;
                continue;
            }

            // The best IP is the IP got from DHCP server
            if (address.PrefixOrigin != PrefixOrigin.Dhcp)
            {
                if (mostSuitableIp == null || !mostSuitableIp.IsDnsEligible)
                    mostSuitableIp = address;
                continue;
            }

            return address.Address.ToString();
        }
    }

    return mostSuitableIp != null 
        ? mostSuitableIp.Address.ToString()
        : "";
}

Pre requisites: you have to add System.Data.Linq reference and refer it

using System.Linq;
string ipAddress ="";
IPHostEntry ipHostInfo = Dns.GetHostEntry(Dns.GetHostName());
ipAddress = Convert.ToString(ipHostInfo.AddressList.FirstOrDefault(address => address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork));