How to get the client IP address in PHP?

Question

How can I get the client IP address using PHP?

I want to keep record of the user who logged into my website through his/her IP address.

Answer 1

As all others said before you can use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; to get client IP address.

Also, if you need more information about a user, you can use this:

<?php
    $ip='0.0.0.0';
    $ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    $clientDetails = json_decode(file_get_contents("http://ipinfo.io/$ip/json"));
    echo "You're logged in from: <b>" . $clientDetails->country . "</b>";
?>

Client's more specific info goes in $clientDetails.
You can fetch json items stored in $clientDetails variable this way: $clientDetails->PostalCode/hostname/region/loc...

I'm using ipinfo.io to get extra info.

I hope it helps.

Answer 2

Here's a simple one liner

$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']?: $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']?: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

EDIT:

Above code may return reserved addresses (like 10.0.0.1), a list of addresses of all proxy servers on the way, etc. To handle these cases use the following code:

function valid_ip($ip) {
    // for list of reserved IP addresses, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserved_IP_addresses
    return $ip && substr($ip, 0, 4) != '127.' && substr($ip, 0, 4) != '127.' && substr($ip, 0, 3) != '10.' && substr($ip, 0, 2) != '0.' ? $ip : false;
}

function get_client_ip() {
    // using explode to get only client ip from list of forwarders. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Forwarded-For
    return
    @$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'] ? explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'], 2)[0] :
    @$_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'] ? explode(',', $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'], 2)[0] :
    valid_ip(@$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) ?:
    'UNKNOWN';
}

echo get_client_ip();

Answer 3

Safe and warnings aware snippet for getting IP:

$ip = filter_input(INPUT_SERVER, 'HTTP_CLIENT_IP', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP)
    ?: filter_input(INPUT_SERVER, 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR', FILTER_VALIDATE_IP)
    ?: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']
    ?? '0.0.0.0'; // or other value fits "not defined" in your logic

Answer 4

function get_client_ip() 
{
   $ipaddress = '';
    if (getenv('HTTP_CLIENT_IP'))
        $ipaddress = getenv('HTTP_CLIENT_IP');
    else if(getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'))
        $ipaddress = getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR');
    else if(getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED'))
        $ipaddress = getenv('HTTP_X_FORWARDED');
    else if(getenv('HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR'))
        $ipaddress = getenv('HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR');
    else if(getenv('HTTP_FORWARDED'))
       $ipaddress = getenv('HTTP_FORWARDED');
    else if(getenv('REMOTE_ADDR'))
        $ipaddress = getenv('REMOTE_ADDR');
    else
        $ipaddress = 'UNKNOWN';

   return $ipaddress;
} 

Answer 5

My favourite solution is the way Zend Framework 2 uses. It also considers the $_SERVER properties HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR, HTTP_CLIENT_IP, REMOTE_ADDR but it declares a class for it to set some trusted proxies and it returns one IP address not an array. I think this is the solution that comes closest to it:

class RemoteAddress
{
    /**
     * Whether to use proxy addresses or not.
     *
     * As default this setting is disabled - IP address is mostly needed to increase
     * security. HTTP_* are not reliable since can easily be spoofed. It can be enabled
     * just for more flexibility, but if user uses proxy to connect to trusted services
     * it's his/her own risk, only reliable field for IP address is $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].
     *
     * @var bool
     */
    protected $useProxy = false;

    /**
     * List of trusted proxy IP addresses
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $trustedProxies = array();

    /**
     * HTTP header to introspect for proxies
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $proxyHeader = 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR';

    // [...]

    /**
     * Returns client IP address.
     *
     * @return string IP address.
     */
    public function getIpAddress()
    {
        $ip = $this->getIpAddressFromProxy();
        if ($ip) {
            return $ip;
        }

        // direct IP address
        if (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])) {
            return $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
        }

        return '';
    }

    /**
     * Attempt to get the IP address for a proxied client
     *
     * @see http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-appsawg-http-forwarded-10#section-5.2
     * @return false|string
     */
    protected function getIpAddressFromProxy()
    {
        if (!$this->useProxy
            || (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) && !in_array($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], $this->trustedProxies))
        ) {
            return false;
        }

        $header = $this->proxyHeader;
        if (!isset($_SERVER[$header]) || empty($_SERVER[$header])) {
            return false;
        }

        // Extract IPs
        $ips = explode(',', $_SERVER[$header]);
        // trim, so we can compare against trusted proxies properly
        $ips = array_map('trim', $ips);
        // remove trusted proxy IPs
        $ips = array_diff($ips, $this->trustedProxies);

        // Any left?
        if (empty($ips)) {
            return false;
        }

        // Since we've removed any known, trusted proxy servers, the right-most
        // address represents the first IP we do not know about -- i.e., we do
        // not know if it is a proxy server, or a client. As such, we treat it
        // as the originating IP.
        // @see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Forwarded-For
        $ip = array_pop($ips);
        return $ip;
    }

    // [...]
}

See the full code here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zendframework/zend-http/master/src/PhpEnvironment/RemoteAddress.php