[tk_]

Hello,
I have an Actiontec GT701 DSL modem. My Internet service requires that the WAN side of the modem be set to DHCP, hence the reason I'm posting this question.

I'm looking for a way to get the WAN IP address (not the LAN) of the modem, since it changes irregularly.

I know I can type in the LAN IP address of the modem and view the IP address on the modem's web page, but I need to be able to get it in text form that I can then either email or FTP it somewhere (i.e. to me at another location). Right now, getting the IP in a text format is the hard part.

I'm hoping for either a script or small program that is simple (and free).

Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
tk

[TerryNet]

I don't know of a script or program, but how about the following for a work around until you find one.

Just email to yourself at the other location. When you read the email look at the full headers and you should find the IP address of the sending computer.

[tk_]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

Just email to yourself at the other location. When you read the email look at the full headers and you should find the IP address of the sending computer.

Interesting, and true, it does show the IP.

Here's my problem, though. I'm not physically at the location of the Actiontec modem I'm trying to get the WAN IP address of.
This is why I'm looking for a script or program that I can schedule to run fairly often to get/check the WAN IP address, and automagically either send it or put it somewhere I can get to from the Internet.

The email idea is interesting and has me thinking. Any other ideas based on what I said above?

Thanks for the idea, too.
tk

[TerryNet]

Most people with this issue would use something like (free) Dynamic DNS: http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/

I've never had a need for it, but I understand it works very well.

[JohnWill]

Works for me.

[tk_]

@TerryNet: I agree, probably most people would do the free dynamic DNS. I'm avoiding that because I don't want to open more things up etc. on my firewall, plus I am trying to avoid giving that kind of information to a third party that, although probably is on the up and up, I don't know.

Honestly, I'm not trying to be difficult. I am really hoping there is a way to do this the way I'd really like to do it --running something locally on my PC that can detect the WAN IP of the DSL modem being used to get to the Internet, and then putting that information somewhere I can get to it remotely. I'm looking for a script or program type solution (running locally) so that I can compare the current IP to the last one, see if it has changed, and then only let me know if and when that has happened. Constantly sending emails adds a layer of maintenance because then I have a) sift through the emails to find the change(s), and b) monitor that email box so it doesn't pile the emails up.

You guys have given me two really good ideas, and I really appreciate them. I'm still interested in other ideas anyone might have, too.

Thanks,
tk

[JohnWill]

DynDNS doesn't open any ports on your firewall.

You're going to have to use something like the DynDNS service, if you could do it locally, there'd be no reason for such services to exist.

[coulterp]

Originally Posted by tk_

...
I'm looking for a way to get the WAN IP address (not the LAN) of the modem, since it changes irregularly.

I know I can type in the LAN IP address of the modem and view the IP address on the modem's web page, but I need to be able to get it in text form that I can then either email or FTP it somewhere (i.e. to me at another location). Right now, getting the IP in a text format is the hard part.

I'm hoping for either a script or small program that is simple (and free).
...

Were you to be running Linux the script is a one-liner! And is about as simple, and free, as you can get!

wget -qO - http://whatismyip.org/

This can be adapted in a sh script to do most anything you could want to do with an IP address; a script such as the following gets the WAN and LAN IPs, updates my dynamic DNS service and emails me the log. Its run as cron job to go however often it is needed.

MyIPDetailsQuery.sh

# write a new log each day
myDate=`date +%Y%m%d`

# set up log file
ipFileName="/tmp/ip-details-$myDate.log"

echo "===== IP DETAILS LOG =====" >> $ipFileName
echo "" >> $ipFileName
date >> $ipFileName

# external IP
wget -qO - http://whatismyip.org/ >> $ipFileName
echo "  : external IP addr" >> $ipFileName

# internal IP
/sbin/ifconfig  | grep 'inet addr:'| grep -v '127.0.0.1' | cut -d: -f2 | awk '{ print $1, " : internal IP addr" }' >> $ipFileName

echo "- - - - - BEGIN no-ip OUTPUT  - - - - -" >> $ipFileName
sudo /usr/local/bin/noip2 -S >> $ipFileName 2>&1
echo "- - - - -  END no-ip OUTPUT  - - - - -" >> $ipFileName

# email the result
/bin/mail -s "IP details query" myadmin@mydomain.com < $ipFileName

If you are not running Linux, then wget is available for Windows (goto sourceforge.net) and I imagine it would not be impossible to produce a BAT file to do the same/similar - although I haven't bothered trying (why bother, when it's so much easier with Linux ).

[jcbarr]

You can set up a batch file using netsh to output the Network Settings of the NIC on your pc to a text file. Then you can email that to yourself or use the script to FTP that to a site.

When you get where you are going access the text file that you have uploaded and reference the default gateway of in the text file and that will be the IP address of the modem.