How to find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi

1. Connect the Raspberry Pi to the network

Using an Ethernet cable or WiFi, connect the Raspberry Pi to the local network. Make sure the device is powered on.

2. Use ping to find the IP Raspberry Pi

Open a shell on a Unix system or open a Command Prompt on Windows and run the following command:

ping raspi

This command will ping the Raspberry Pi and return its IP address. If you get an error similar to ' Cannot resolve raspi: Unknown host ', try running the following command instead:

ping raspberrypi

If you're running RetroPie, you can try the following hostname:

ping retropie

If you are having problems or have multiple Raspberry Pi on the same network, move on to the next step.

3. Use nmap to find the IP Raspberry Pi

You can use nmap to scan your local network for all connected devices. To do this, you will have to find the IP address of the local computer.

Your IP address should look like this: 192.168.1.181. Other devices on the same network will have the first three sections in the same address: 192.168.1. The notation to describe the entire range of IP addresses from 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.255 is 192.168.1.0/24.

When scoping the subnet, you'll use it with the nmap command:

nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24

If you're running on a Unix system, you may be required to run this command using sudo:

sudo nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24

You will then see a list of devices connected to the network:

Nmap scan report for Chromecast.attlocal.net (192.168.1.78) Host is up (0.042s latency). MAC Address: 54:60:09:06:76:0A (Google) Nmap scan report for unknownc24b2b235d18.attlocal.net (192.168.1.178) Host is up (0.038s latency). MAC Address: C2:4B:2B:23:5D:18 (Unknown) Nmap scan report for docker1.attlocal.net (192.168.1.181) Host is up (0.51s latency). MAC Address: B8:27:EB:79:49:F2 (Raspberry Pi Foundation) Nmap scan report for raspberrypi.attlocal.net (192.168.1.183) Host is up (0.51s latency). MAC Address: B8:27:EB:95:6D:7A (Raspberry Pi Foundation)

You will notice here that the article author has several devices. After a quick glance, you will find that the Raspberry Pi is connected to the network. From here, you can discover the IP address of the Pi.

Samuel Daniel

Update 17 August 2020