Get User IP

Cagez

I've heard that using getenv("REMOTE_ADDR") sometimes doesn't work, is there a fail-safe way of getting the user's IP address?

planetsim

use $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]; best way

Cagez

I thought I saw somewhere that someitmes that variable can be false.

planetsim

i dont know where you saw it but its not entirely true. Well its not true in this case.

Cagez

Ok, thank you 🙂

diego25

It won't get the user's real IP if the user is behind a proxy...and no, there's no way to get the real IP if the user is behind a proxy -- that's why some people use proxies, to hide their real IP.

Diego

Cagez

I'm just using it for a "Users Online" script, it will still work right?

planetsim

Yes

diego25

Well, depends...If your 'users online' script counts the number of different IPs that are connected, but 2 employees from the same company access your site, and they go through their company proxy server, then your script will think that both employees are coming from one IP, and therefore will count them as 1. Same thing for LANs. If all the people in a LAN were using a proxy, then your script would only count them as 1.

Diego

planetsim

No every computer has a unique IP Address. And for a site coming from a network. It wont be any different.
Although yes they'd be similar but i think the last 2 or 3 numbers make it unique.

Then again it also depends on what the person who configured the network up, if they chose to make it unique IP or same.

diego25

But if they go through a proxy, then $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] will return the IP of the proxy! Not the user's IP! Really, I've tried it...So if 2 people are using a proxy, then PHP will see those 2 people as coming from the same IP.

Diego

Cagez

So I'll need to set cookies/session vars to be able to count all of the users?

diego25

Yeah, you could...or you could just leave it the way it is now. So what if there's some inaccuracy? It depends on your situation I guess...

Diego

Cagez

Thank you all for your help! 🙂

Duey

you could have a look at some forums source code and see how they do it.

Cagez

I think they assign the IP to a username...