Get The IP Address Of A Visitor Through PHP

12th November 2008 - 2 minutes read time

I have talked previously about getting an IP address of a visitor with PHP. The failing in using the value of $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] is that if the visitor is using a proxy then you will get the proxy IP address and not the visitors real IP address.

This function works by going through any variables in the $_SERVER array that might exist that would contain information to do with IP addresses. If they are all empty then the function finally looks at $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] value and returns this as a default.

function getRealIpAddr(){
 if ( !empty($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']) ) {
  // Check IP from internet.
  $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
 } elseif (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']) ) {
  // Check IP is passed from proxy.
  $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
 } else {
  // Get IP address from remote address.
  $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
 }
 return $ip;
}

To run this function just call it.

echo getRealIpAddr();

 

server
PHP

Comments

Hi, I have go through this post and found very helpful but i still could not able to found the real ip. I use geoip api to track the country but when i get the ip from given function it could not return country and if i try http://www.whatismyip.com ip address it return the country correctly. thanks, akram.

Submitted by akram on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 18:26

Permalink
This technique is most important when you want to check from where your site is accessing or what is your behavior of your website visitor. If something wrong happen by any person meas if they doing some vulnerable activities then you can easily block that visitor. Thanks for such nice code which help people to get IP address of particular user.

Submitted by Leslie Kelley on Thu, 06/01/2017 - 13:20

Permalink

Hi, How can I get the URLs and page title of a visitor through PHP...

Thanks in advance.

Submitted by Falihah Aziz on Fri, 05/29/2020 - 18:22

Permalink

Please note: A user can specify whatever they like for 'X-Forwarded-For' so could claim to be from whatever source IP they want,

its true some proxy servers will put the real IP here, but you can really put whatever you want there (even something thats not even an IP Address..)

Submitted by SilicaAndPina on Sat, 11/07/2020 - 01:08

Permalink

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
1 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Related Content

Generating Colour Palettes From Images In PHP

4th August 2024

A common web design pattern is to incorporate an image into the design of the page. This creates a tighter integration with the image and the rest of the page.

The main issue in designing a page around the image is that the colours of the page must match the image. Otherwise this creates a dissonance between the image and the styles of the site.

Read more

Validating XML Files With XML Schema Definitions In PHP

21st July 2024

XML is a useful format for configuration, data storage, and transmitting data from one system to another. As a human readable format that can be easily read by machines it quickly gained favor in lots of different systems as a mechanism for data storage.

Read more

Approximating Pi Using A Circle And A Square

26th May 2024

Pi day was a few weeks ago, but I came across this simple approximation of pi recently and decided to put together an example in PHP since it seemed pretty simple.

This approximation of pi centers around a real world example, but we can simulate this using some code.

Read more

Drawing A Parabolic Curve With Straight Lines In PHP

12th May 2024

A parabolic curve is a type of curve where every point is an equal distance from a focal point. There a number of different way to generate this sort of curve using math, but one of the simplest is to use straight lines to create the illusion of the curve.

Read more

Recreating Spotify Wrapped In PHP

17th March 2024

I quite like the end of the year report from Spotify that they call "Wrapped". This is a little application in which they tell you what your favorite artist was and what sort of genres you listened to the most during the year.

Read more