how do I get my "external IP address"?

I am trying to find out my external IP address. Also I probably have a few misconceptions as to how ISPs and IP addresses work. First of all I connect to my ISP with DHCP. Currently when I check my IP address I see that my IP address is 10.200.18.159. This is a private IP address. These addresses are private and not accessible from the internet from my understanding:

(10.*.*.*)
(172.16.*.*) through (172.31.*.*)
(192.168.*.*) through (192.168.255.255)

So this means that my IP (10.200.18.159) is an address on my ISPs private lan.

My major question is this: do I have an "public IP address" also? In other words; if I were to go to a different machine, outside of my home network, could I type in an IP address into a web browser and reach that machine (assuming I have a web server running)? I tried this one site that claimed it could tell me my address:

http://checkip.dyndns.org:8245/

and it returned:

http://216.157.205.249/

that dirrected me to a site that sells routers:

www.MikroTik.com

I guess the strange thing is that if I run a traceroute to any site I get this for the first few addresses:

1) 10.200.18.1 (I am assuming a gateway or proxy of my ISP)
2) 216.157.205.250 (the mikrotik website)
3) 10.200.1.1 (I am assuming a gateway or proxy of my ISP)
4) 63.89.180.254 (no idea)
5) 64.186.46.5 (no idea)

Is this maybe some technique that they use to mask my "external IP" address from me? Am I misled in believing that there is such a thing as an "external IP address"? I don't know all the inner workings of TCP/IP. But I am assuming that there is not a persistent connection. In other words; a client sends a request for a web page. The ISP does name resolution using a DNS server and forwards the request to the server that has the page. Does the web site then send out the page with the clients IP address (in which case the client would have to have an IP address that is accessible from the internet)? Or does the server simply return it to the ISP and the ISP handles getting it back to the client?

The way I find my IP is by opening a command box (Start > Run > "command" > enter)

Then type ipconfig

Hope that was what you wanted.

you can get your External IP Address using this website...

just go to " whatismyip.com " to get your External IP, DNS server details, etc..

As you've seen, your "internal" IP is different to your "external" IP.

This happens because ISP's pool the IP addresses at a main router, and use that router to send out the requests for however many customers are connected to it. This means that the external IP address is the IP address of the ISP's router, and your internal IP address is the IP address of your machine that was assigned by the router so it knows where to send the data to so that it reaches your machine.

At a guess I'd say that when you vist your external IP, you see a website that's not associated with anthing of yours because your ISP is using that IP address to host websites as well, and that just happens to be the "default" site for that IP address, so that's what's shown.

In this scenario, you can't connect to your PC directly from outside your network, meaning that a normal computer can't connect to it through the internet.

You can get all the details about the IPs and name servers on Who.is and also can try on http://www.whatismyip.com

The easiest way in case you just want to know your public IP address is type in "my ip address" in Google and search. This will display your public IP address.

Hi,

Before read your post, I am not aware about this process. I have find in Google for this process, and find it really great and depth information about that. You can also find here: lifehacker.com/5833108/how-to-find-your-local-and-external-ip-address

You can't get it directly from the machine you are on. You'll need to get a machine on the internet to tell you...

There were many tools available online to find out the IP address.

good grief people...this thread is from 2004.
If the OP hasn't found out how to get their external IP by now, there is no hope for them.

I am now subscribed to this thread. Anyone who posts any of the following will be considered a spammer and banned:
* A repeat of anything already mentioned in the thread
* A reply saying how someone else's recommendation is good or helpful
* A recommendation for any other websites used to determine your external IP
* A short post that adds nothing to the thread

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