How To Find Your Local IP Address In Windows 7 or Vista

Finding your IP address under Windows 7 is a very simple process.  The process is actually exactly the same whether your using Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or even Windows Serer 2003/2008.

Although in most circumstances the majority of users don’t need to worry about their “IP Address” due to DHCP from your local network or ISP, for system administrators knowing the IP address of your machine, server or customers PC is very important.

How To Find Your Local IP Address In Windows 7 Using CMD

Step 1

Click Start, in the search Type in cmd.  Next Click on the program cmd. This will open the Command Prompt / Windows.

Step 2

The command prompt should open, now in the open line you’ll need to Type in ipconfig and Press Enter.

You’ll see your IP address listed right above the subnet mask, usually it will say IPv4 Address and follow the prefix 192.168.1.# or 192.168.0.# for home networks as shown in the screenshot above.

Step 3 (optional)

If your not looking for your LOCAL IP address but instead the IP address provided by your ISP to your Cable Modem or FIOS Router, just open your browser and goto: http://whatismyip.org.

Please note – This is not the actual IP your using on your LOCAL computer as shown above in Step 2.  This is the IP address assigned to your Cable Modem / FIOS Router on the internet.

Further reading…

What is an IP Address?

• If you want to call someone, you use their Telephone or Mobile number right?  Well an IP Address or Internet Protocol Address for a computer or network device is basically a phone number for your computer.  That’s it…  It’s pretty simple.
• Because no one knows the “Phone Number IP Address” for www.google.com, another technology was created to act as an Automatic Phone book for IP Addresses.  It’s called DNS.  When you type www.groovypost.com into your browser, DNS will translate that into an IP Address and send you to the website.  It’s all very simple once you understand it.

IPV6 Address?

• In a system or network that uses IPv6 you won’t see a Subnet mask,, and the address will follow the fe80::## prefix.  However for most home users, IPv6 use is uncommon.

IPv4 Vs. IPv6?

• IPv4 is the old system we currently use to designate IP addresses across all of the public computers that are connecting to the internet.  The problem with IPv4 is the address is only 32bit’s in length which means there are not enough addresses to go around.
• IPv6 is 128 bits in length which should allow for more than enough addresses in the foreseeable future.  The good news is most modern operating systems understand both so when the times comes for the cutover, it should be invisible for most users.

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