In an upcoming blog I expect to write about configuring a home router, which requires logging on to it. This, in turn, requires knowing the IP address of the router. Non-techies typically don't know anything about IP addresses, let alone the one assigned to their router. Since I expect the upcoming blog to be fairly long, I decided to start with this cheat sheet for learning the IP address of a router.
All routers have a web-based interface and, thus, are configured with a web browser. While some routers can be accessed by name (they typically intercept DNS queries), they all can be accessed by their IP address.
Full access to the router requires a userid and password, but to even get prompted for this, you need to know the IP address.
An IP address is written as four numbers separated by periods. Typical home networks use IP addresses that start with 192.168. Often the router will have an IP address such as 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1.
If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) installed your router, they know both its IP address and the userid/password for it. In my experience, the ISP never tells the customer any of this information up front.
With a self-installed router, you can get the IP address (assuming it wasn't changed at installation) from the manufacturer's documentation. Sometimes it is on a label on the bottom of the router.
Once a network has been set up, each computing device on the network knows the IP address of the router and will spill the beans if you know the secret handshake. Terminology can get in the way however.
Apple devices refer to the router as "Router". Windows refers to it as the "Default Gateway", a term borrowed from TCP/IP. Chrome OS refers to the router as "Gateway". Android won't tell you the IP address of your router, forcing you to install an app.
WINDOWS
Windows users can start a command prompt and type in "ipconfig" to see the Default Gateway. The output will look like this on Windows 7:
Windows IP ConfigurationEthernet adapter Local Area Connection:Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.5.29Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0Default Gateway . . . . . . . . : 192.168.5.1
The output of the command Windows XP is almost identical. On either system, if the computer is using Wi-Fi rather than Ethernet, look for "Wireless Network Connection" instead of "Local Area Connection".
The same ipconfig command works on the desktop side of Windows 8, which also identifies the router as "Default Gateway". A wireless connection on Windows 8 is called "Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi", while a wired connection is identified as "Ethernet adapter Ethernet".
iOS
On an iOS 6 device, go to settings, then Wi-Fi, then click on the arrow to the right of your network name. You will then see something like that shown below where the router IP address is identified as "Router".
The instructions for iOS version 5 are identical to those for version 6.
On iOS 7 (tested with 7.1.1), go to settings, then Wi-Fi, then click on the name of the wireless network you are connected to. The interface has not changed from version 6, the routers IP address is still identified as "Router" in the DHCP section.
On iOS 8 (tested with 8.1.2), the procedure is the same as with version 7.
The instructions above assume that the iOS device was assigned its IP address using DHCP. In the rare case where it has a static IP address, click on the Static tab (shown above) and, again, look for "Router".
OS X
In Snow Leopard, go to Network preferences, click on the Advanced button, then on the TCP/IP tab. As with iOS, the router is identified as "Router".
In Yosemite you can get the IP address of the router a few ways.
One approach is a terminal command. Run terminal with Go -> Utilities -> Terminal, then enter:
netstat -nr | grep default
The output looks something like
Default 192.168.3.1 UGSc 317 2 en0
In this example, the routers IP address is 192.168.3.1.
Another terminal command you can try is
route -n get default
Look for "gateway" on a line by itself. To the right of it is the IP address of the router.
If using Wi-Fi on Yosemite, Option clicking on the Wi-Fi indicator causes the system to display more data than a normal click. Included in this additional data is the IP address of the router, identified as "Router". Option clicking did not display the router IP address in Lion, I'm not sure which release of OS X introduced it.
A normal click on the Wi-Fi indicator also produces the router IP address if you look hard enough. Click on Open Network Preferences, then on the Wi-Fi network interface in left side column (should say "connected"), then click the Advanced... button, then the TCP/IP tab and look for "Router". Whew.
If not using Wi-Fi, then: System Preferences -> Network -> click on the "connected" network interface in the column on the left -> Advanced... button -> TCP/IP tab and look for "Router".
If that's not enough, the IP address is also available in the System Information utility (Go -> Utilities -> System Information). Click on Network in the left side column, then Wi-Fi in the top pane (not the left pane), and look for "Router" in the IPv4 section.
ANDROID
Android 2.3 and 4.x devices, do not report the router IP address as part of the Wi-Fi settings display. My favorite app for network information is Fing, which I wrote about last year. Fing is designed to take an inventory of the computing devices on your network. Run Fing and click on the top line, the one with the network name. It refers to the router as "Gateway" and the IP address is below the Local Address and above DNS.
Another great app that shows the IP address of the router as a side benefit isWiFi Analyzer by farproc. In WiFi Analyzer, go to the AP list screen and click on the top line, the one showing the name of the network you are connected to and your IP address. Look for the "Gateway" IP address (it is above the Netmask).
Update June 28, 2014: As of version 4.4.2, Android still does not report the IP address of the router as part of the Wi-Fi settings display.
Update Nov. 6, 2014: As of version 4.4.4 still no router IP address. What it does show is the IP address of your device.
CHROME OS
On a Chromebook, enter "chrome://system" in the address bar and scroll down to network-status. Click on the gray Expand button. If the Chromebook is connected via Ethernet, look for the clump of data identified as "eth0". If you are connected wirelessly, look in the "wlan0" section. The router is identified as "Gateway".
Update June 23, 2014: As of version 35 of Chrome OS the above is still true.
So as not to have go through this again, I suggest writing the IP address of the router, along with the userid/password, on a piece of paper taped to the router face-down.
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