How to Check the IP Address in Linux

Finding Your Private IP Address

1. Understand when to use this method. If you're trying to find the IP address of your computer within your Wi-Fi network (e.g., if you want to forward your router for your computer), you'll need to know the IP address.

2. Open Terminal. Click or double-click the Terminal app icon, or press Ctrl+Alt+T to bring up the Terminal window.

3. Enter the "Show IP" command. Type ifconfig into the Terminal window. Other commands you can try include the following:

   1. ip addr
   2. ip a

4. Press ↵ Enter. Doing so runs your command and displays the IP address information of any network items, including your computer.

5. Find your computer's heading. You'll usually find your computer's information under the "wlo1" (or "wlan0") heading, just right of the "inet" tag.^[2]

6. Review the private IP address. The IPv4 address is to the right of the "inet" tag. This is the IP address of your computer on your current network.

   1. You can usually see the IPv6 address next to the "inet6" tag. The IPv6 address is less commonly used than the IPv4 address.

7. Try the "hostname" command. On some Linux versions, such as Ubuntu, you can bring up your computer's IP address by typing in hostname -I (that's a capital "i", not a lower-case "L") and pressing ↵ Enter.