Getting wrong IP address from JFactory::getApplication()->input->server->get('REMOTE_ADDR','');

Question

I am attempting to validate the user IP address in a post. Joomla 3.5 and PHP 5.6.20.

I have read How can I grab the user's IP address? and tried this out, but the wrong IP address is being returned.

Yes, my client is in a NAT but I checked the external port on the router for my external dhcp address, plus I compared against whatismyipaddress.com to ensure I am not (too) crazy.

Most likely, this is due to a proxied setup by my hosting provider (they are now using CloudFlare). Any ideas on how to resolve the client ip address in this situation?

Answer 1

Maybe bad form to answer my own post, but I did locate the answer once I moved beyond the Joomla documentation.

In my situation, the following line:

$clientip = JFactory::getApplication()->input->server->get('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR',''); 

returns the correct value for the user ip address when the server is proxied!

Answer 2

Just an FYI, there's no way to always get the real IP address as it may be proxied.

Based on the following answer on Stack Overflow, you could use something like this:

function getRealIpAddr()
{
    $server = JFactory::getApplication()->input->server;

    if (!empty($server->get('HTTP_CLIENT_IP')))    //check ip from share internet
    {
        $ip = $server->get('HTTP_CLIENT_IP');
    }
    elseif (!empty($server->get('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR')))  //to check ip is pass from proxy
    {
        $ip = $server->get('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR');
    }
    else
    {
        $ip = $server->get('REMOTE_ADDR');
    }

    return $ip;
}