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How To Find IP Address

oznu edited this page Jul 21, 2020 · 2 revisions

Any device connected to a Local Area Network is assigned an IP address.

In order to connect to your Raspberry Pi from another machine using SSH, you need to know the Pi's IP address. There are a number of methods for finding it remotely from another machine on the network.

Router devices list

In a web browser navigate to your router's IP address e.g. http://192.168.1.1, which is usually printed on a label on your router; this will take you to a control panel. Then log in using your credentials, which is usually also printed on the router or sent to you in the accompanying paperwork. Browse to the list of connected devices or similar (all routers are different), and you should see some devices you recognise. Some devices are detected as PCs, tablets, phones, printers, etc. so you should recognise some and rule them out to figure out which is your Raspberry Pi. Also note the connection type; if your Pi is connected with a wire there should be fewer devices to choose from.

Resolving homebridge.local with mDNS

If your device supports mDNS, you can reach your Raspberry Pi by using its hostname and the .local suffix. The default hostname on a fresh Homebridge Raspbian install is homebridge, so by default any Raspberry Pi running the Homebridge Raspbian Image responds to:

ping homebridge.local

If the Raspberry Pi is reachable, ping will show its IP address:

PING homebridge.local (192.168.1.131): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.131: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=2.618 ms

If you change the system hostname of the Raspberry Pi (e.g., by editing /etc/hostname), Avahi will also change the .local mDNS address.

Getting the IP address of a Pi using your smartphone

The Fing app is a free network scanner for smartphones. It is available for Android and iOS.

Your phone and your Raspberry Pi have to be on the same network, so connect your phone to the correct wireless network.

When you open the Fing app, touch the refresh button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. After a few seconds you will get a list with all the devices connected to your network. Scroll down to the entry with the hostname "Homebridge". You will see the IP address in the bottom left-hand corner, and the MAC address in the bottom right-hand corner of the entry.

Connect A Monitor

If you plug a monitor into your Raspberry Pi, the IP address will be displayed on the attached screen once it has finished booting.