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[REBOL] Re: How to get allocated ip number

From: holger::rebol::net at: 16-Oct-2002 8:04

On Wed, Oct 16, 2002 at 06:58:29AM -0500, G. Scott Jones wrote:
> Hi, Gabriele, > > From: "Gabriele Santilli" > > I don't know if I understood the question correctly, but it is > > possible to discover the address you are using when you connect to > > something with: > > > > port: open tcp://www.rebol.com:80 > > print port/local-ip > > close port
Yes, that's basically correct. First of all, the question "to discover THE address you are using" is inaccurate, because hosts can have more than one address. There is obviously the loopback address 127.0.0.1, plus usually at least one other IP address, sometimes more than one, e.g. if your machine is connected to a local network, or if you have more than one simultaneous Internet connection. Since the question is not unique, you cannot expect the answer to be unique :-). REBOL tells you all IP addresses in use on your system, just like OS calls or shell calls on your machine do. It is up to you to figure out which IP address is relevant, based on what you want to do. If you want to know which IP address would be used locally if you connect "to the Internet" then the easiest way is to actually connect and look at your local IP, as Gabriele described. This is what you should do if you want to implement protocols that require you to send IP addresses across the connection (IRC DCC, FTP active mode etc.), or which require multiple sockets with identical local IPs. It is dangerous to assume that the IP address used on your end of a connection is always your ISP-assigned IP addresses, because this does not hold for locally forwarded connections (e.g. if your router contains a transparent http proxy cache) or for connections through VPNs. Actually connecting and then checking is the best way. If you want to know the IP address of a particular interface (e.g. for admin or logging purposes), then simply look at the interface list and pick the interface you need, based on your knowledge of the topology of your network.
> My ill-formed question concerned a slightly different area; although, I > suspect that your answer may also be helpful to Michel. > > What I am curious about is the two letter code that preceeds the interface > name, like: > lox > ifxxxxxxxxx > pppx
In most cases these names are generated by the OS. For instance Unix has a naming convention of "name followed by a number" for all interfaces (with the exception of Linux often using lo instead of lo0 for loopback). In the case where the OS provides such a name REBOL will use that. Some operating systems do not provide a name, but some kind of number or id. In that case REBOL generates a name: "lox" for loopback, and ifxxxxxxxx for all other interfaces ("if" standing for "interface", because there is no way for REBOL to know the actual type of interface in this case).
> If there is solid information somewhere about this coding convention, then > Michel may be able to develop a generic approach to deciding what ip belongs > to which tcp interface. Otherwise, I am guessing that your trick documented > above is the easiest solution.
Unfortunately there is very little standardization, except for lo/lo0 being loopback. PPP is usually pppx, except for platforms which do not have interface names, but PPP can also be, e.g., tunx (for tunnel) depending on config. Ethernet can be pretty much anything, a generic "ethx" (Linux, Amiga etc.) or a prefix determined by the type of hardware used on the NIC, e.g. on most BSDs "nex" for NE2000. Your Internet connection therefore can have pretty much any name, except for lo/lo0. On platforms that do not generate actual names the name is completely unpredictable. For Unix/Amiga etc. the name is usually pppx for dialup and for some types of dsl/cable connections (pppoe). If you are connected through Ethernet to a cable/dsl modem or router and your ISP does not use pppoe (or the router terminates pppoe internally) then the name can be anything though, on Linux often ethx. -- Holger Kruse [holger--ukiahmail--net]