How to Check Your IP Address Using IPConfig /All Command

 Running the command is trivial. Reading the output is the skill.

There are roughly nine lines in that wall of text that tell you almost everything about whether a machine's networking is healthy, and most people scan for the IP address and ignore the rest. Those other lines answer questions that otherwise take twenty minutes of investigation — whether DHCP responded, which server answered, when the lease expires, and whether another device is using the same address.

This article covers what ipconfig /all actually reports and how to read it diagnostically rather than just looking up a number.

The Command and Its Variants

Open Command Prompt or PowerShell. Administrator rights are not required for viewing.

• ipconfig shows a condensed view: address, mask, and gateway for each adapter. Enough for a quick check.
• ipconfig /all shows everything, including the fields that matter for diagnosis.

On a machine with several adapters the output runs long. Two ways to manage it:

• ipconfig /all | more pages through it.
• ipconfig /all > C:\temp\ip.txt writes it to a file, which is what you should do before sending it to anyone for help.

The Nine Lines That Matter

Working down a typical adapter section, here is what each field tells you.

Physical Address

The MAC address of the adapter, shown as six pairs of hexadecimal digits.

You need this for creating DHCP reservations, configuring port security, and tracing a device to a physical switch port. The first three pairs identify the manufacturer, which is occasionally useful for working out what an unfamiliar device is.

DHCP Enabled

Yes or No, and it changes the meaning of everything below.

If Yes, the address came from a server, and the lease fields further down are populated. If No, someone typed the configuration manually, and the lease and DHCP server fields will be absent.

This single field answers a common question immediately: is this machine configured statically or dynamically? People frequently assume one and find the other.

The IPv4 Address

The important part is not just the number but which range it falls in.

• A normal private address — beginning 10., 172.16 through 172.31, or 192.168 — means DHCP worked or a sensible static address was configured.
• An address beginning 169.254 means the machine asked for DHCP and received no answer. This is automatic private addressing, and it is a placeholder rather than a working configuration. The link is physically up, because the request was sent, but nothing responded.
• A public address on an internal machine means either you are connected directly to a provider circuit, or something is configured oddly.

Watch also for the annotation after the address. Windows normally appends (Preferred). If it instead says (Duplicate), another device on the segment is using the same address, and that is your entire problem — duplicate addresses produce intermittent failures affecting both machines and are otherwise very hard to diagnose.

Subnet Mask

Usually 255.255.255.0, and worth checking rather than assuming.

A mask that differs from other devices on the same segment causes asymmetric reachability — one machine can reach another while replies take a detour and may not arrive. If connectivity works in one direction and not the other, compare masks on both ends before investigating anything else.

Default Gateway

The address traffic uses to leave the local network.

Three things to verify:

• It is present. An empty gateway field means the machine can reach its own segment and nothing beyond it. This is a common result of a partial DHCP configuration or a manual setup where someone entered the address and mask and stopped.
• It is in the same subnet as the machine's own address. A gateway outside the local subnet cannot be reached and will not work.
• It is the address you expect. A gateway pointing at an unfamiliar device suggests a rogue DHCP server, covered next.

DHCP Server

The address of whatever answered the request. This field is one of the most underused diagnostics available.

If it shows an address that is not your DHCP server, someone has connected a device that is handing out configuration — almost always a consumer router plugged in for extra ports. That device is competing with your legitimate server, and clients accept whichever offer arrives first, which produces chaotic and inconsistent symptoms across the office.

Checking this field on an affected machine identifies the problem in seconds. Tracing that address through switch MAC tables then leads to the physical port.

Lease Obtained and Lease Expires

When the address was issued and when it runs out.

Useful for two things. First, a lease obtained very recently on a machine that has been running for days indicates the adapter reconnected — which may explain an interruption the user reported. Second, the gap between the two dates tells you the configured lease duration, which is worth knowing when planning.

DNS Servers

The resolvers this machine will use, in order.

Check that entries exist at all, that they are correct for this network, and that the primary and secondary are genuinely different servers rather than two addresses on the same failed device.

One warning worth repeating: a domain-joined machine must point at internal DNS servers. Pointing it at a public resolver breaks domain authentication, Group Policy, and access to internal resources — and the resulting error messages say nothing about DNS.

Leftover entries from a disconnected VPN client appear here frequently and cause resolution failures that nothing else explains.

The IPv6 Section and Why It Confuses

Most output includes IPv6 information that people find alarming and which is usually irrelevant.

• Link-local addresses begin with fe80 and exist on every adapter automatically. They are normal and are not evidence of anything.
• Tunnel adapters — entries with names such as isatap or Teredo — are transition mechanisms. On most networks they are inactive noise and can be ignored.
• A genuine global IPv6 address means your network actually runs IPv6, which is worth knowing because it means some traffic may be bypassing IPv4 firewall rules entirely.

The Header Fields Nobody Reads

Before the adapter sections, the output opens with several lines describing the machine itself. They are easy to skip and occasionally decisive.

• Host Name. The machine's name. Worth confirming when you are working remotely and want certainty that you are on the machine you think you are.
• Primary DNS Suffix. The domain the machine belongs to. An empty value on a machine that should be domain-joined is significant — it suggests the machine has lost its domain membership, which explains a whole family of authentication symptoms.
• Node Type. How the machine resolves NetBIOS names. Legacy, and rarely relevant now.
• IP Routing Enabled. Normally No. A Yes on an ordinary workstation means the machine is configured to forward traffic between its interfaces, which is unusual and worth investigating.
• WINS Proxy Enabled. Legacy, almost always No.

Each adapter section then begins with a Description field showing the adapter's full name as the driver reports it. This matters more than the friendly name Windows displays, because it identifies the actual hardware — and it distinguishes a physical adapter from the virtual ones created by hypervisors and VPN clients, which is not always obvious from the connection name alone.

The Connection-specific DNS Suffix below it shows the domain supplied by DHCP for this connection. An unexpected value here often reveals which network a machine is actually attached to.

Reading Multiple Adapters

Modern machines show several sections. Identifying which one matters:

• "Media disconnected" means no cable and no connection. Skip it.
• The adapter with a valid address and gateway is the one in use.
• Virtual adapters from hypervisors and VPN software appear with their own addressing and are frequently mistaken for the real connection.
• Both wired and wireless connected simultaneously raises the question of which one Windows is actually using, which ipconfig does not answer. Run netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces and compare metrics — the lower value wins.

Filtering the Output

When you need one specific field:

• ipconfig /all | findstr "IPv4" shows just the addresses.
• ipconfig /all | findstr "DNS Servers" shows the resolvers.
• ipconfig /all | findstr "Default Gateway" shows the gateways.

In PowerShell, Get-NetIPConfiguration produces a cleaner summary, and Get-NetIPConfiguration -Detailed includes most of what /all reports in a structured form you can filter properly.

A Health Checklist

Reading the output for an adapter you believe should be working, confirm:

1. The adapter is not showing media disconnected.
2. The IPv4 address is in the expected range, and marked Preferred rather than Duplicate.
3. The subnet mask matches other devices on the segment.
4. A default gateway is present and inside the same subnet.
5. The DHCP server is the one you expect.
6. The lease is current.
7. DNS servers are listed and appropriate for this machine.

Seven checks, under a minute, and they eliminate the majority of common configuration faults before you touch anything else.

Other Platforms

The equivalents, since mixed environments are normal:

• macOS: ifconfig for addressing, or networksetup -getinfo "Wi-Fi" for a more readable summary including DNS and gateway.
• Linux: ip addr for addresses, ip route for the gateway, and resolvectl status or the contents of /etc/resolv.conf for resolvers.

The information is the same; only the presentation differs.

The Habit Worth Building

When anyone reports a network problem, capture this output before changing anything:

ipconfig /all > C:\temp\before.txt

It takes three seconds, and it gives you a record of the state that produced the fault. If your fix works, you can see exactly what changed. If it does not, you have not lost the evidence.

That discipline is what separates methodical troubleshooting from trial and error — and ipconfig /all is the cheapest possible way to practise it.