How to get its own IP address with a socket address?

Question

I want to get the IP address of the computer my program is launched on, to be able then to send it to a client, but I always get 0.0.0.1 instead of the real IP address (like 127.0.0.1 for instance).

I'm currently able to get the port, but not the IP address.

How can I get it?

The best solution would be to be able to get it with a sockaddr_in. Here's what I'm currently doing:

int open_connection(char* ip, int* port)
{
  int                   sock;
  struct sockaddr_in    sin;
  socklen_t             len;
  int                   i;

  i = 0;
  len = sizeof(sin);
  if ((sock = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) == -1)
    return (-1);
  bzero(&sin, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in));
  sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
  if (bind(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &sin, sizeof(sin)) != 0)
    perror("Error on bind");
  if (getsockname(sock, (struct sockaddr *)&sin, &len) != 0)
    perror("Error on getsockname");
  strcpy(ip, inet_ntoa(sin.sin_addr)); // IP = 0.0.0.0
  *port = sin.sin_port;
  return (sock);
}

EDIT: I understand I was going on the wrong way with my way of thinking. So my question is: What's the best way to get your own IP address?

Answer 1

When you bind() a socket to 0.0.0.0, that is the only IP the socket has available when calling getsockname(). It means the socket is bound to all local interfaces. In order to get a specific IP from a socket, it has to be bound to a specific IP.

Using the socket API to get the machine's local IP(s) is the wrong approach anyway. A common mistake is to use gethostname() with gethostbyname() or getaddrinfo() to get the local IP list. Usually that works, but it has some hidden gotchas that can cause false information, but people tend to ignore that fact, or don't even know about it in the first place (I didn't know about it for years, but then I learned better).

Instead, you really should use platform-specific APIs for enumerating the local networking interfaces. That will provide more reliable information. Windows has GetAdaptersInfo() and GetAdaptersAddresses(). Other platforms have getifaddrs(). Those will tell you what local IPs are available. You can then bind() a socket to 0.0.0.0 in order to accept clients on any of those IPs, or bind() to a specific IP to accept clients only on that IP.

Answer 2

The sockets API allows you to enumerate the IP addresses assigned to your network interfaces, but it will not tell you what you "real IP" is if you are connecting to the Internet from behind a router.

The only way to know it is by asking someone outside. Thats how servers like FileZilla FTP Server do that. They instruct you to configure the URL to a "ip.php" script like this one in the server's settings so it can ask the Internet whats its public IP address, to use in Passive Mode.

You can also consider using STUN, a protocol widely used in VoIP to discover public IP.