php - $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] not giving the right ip address

Question

I'm making a form with PHP and I want to keep record of the User's IP Addresses. This is the snip-it of code I used:

<input type="hidden" name="ip" value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']; ?>" />

When I open the code up in XAMPP and read the source, the value had an IP address different than what was mine:

<input type="hidden" name="ip" value="::1" />

Does this IP address normally happen when I use it in a localhost (XAMPP)?
If not, are there any alternatives into grabbing the user's IP address?

Answer 1

IP ::1 is "localhost" in IPv6 version. Your machine is configured with IPv6 - and hence you're getting this IP address. Probably, when you deploy your application on the live server, IPv6 will not be configured on the server and your app will get a more familiar IPv4 address (e.g. aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd).

On another note, $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] may not always contain the right address. It's better to use:

if(!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])) {
    $ip_address = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
} else {
    $ip_address = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}