Finding the IP address of a freshly imaged Raspberry Pi can sometimes be a PITA. Especially if you do not have access to a spare HDMI cable, monitor, mouse, and keyboard. In this article, we will cover off on a few methods to identify your Raspberry Pi IP address on your network. As with all things, there are many ways to achieve this however I have listed a few of the non-complex methods here.
- DHCP is enabled on your router
- Your Raspberry Pi is plugged in via Ethernet
- Your Pi is powered up.
Sometimes finding your Raspberry Pi IP address can be a pain in the bum depending on how your network is set up and the resources you have available. Finding an IP can be achieved in a few different ways.
The first method may be to connect a monitor/keyboard/mouse to the Pi and get it to boot into the GUI. However, we do not always have an HDMI cable, keyboard, and mouse handy. The second method could be to connect to the Pi in its?”headless” state using a third-party application. Failing the above methods, you could also log into your router and check your ARP table. However, each router is different and results can sometimes be confusing. I would have to say that using third-party apps is the easiest method.
Third-Party App: AngryIP (My personal Favourite!) Navigate your way to http://angryip.org/download/ and download the AngryIP software applicable for your operating system. Install the software as per every other application you have and run.
This piece of software is super simple, input the IP range you wish to scan. eg 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.1.255 (You could probably shorten this if you know what your DHCP range is set to – Will save time sifting through 255 results)
Then click “Start”. The app will search through the whole range and display hostnames in the third column. You will be looking for something similar to the image below.
Third-Party App: Adafruit Pi Finder – Download the Adafruit Pi Finder application via the GitHub page:?https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Pi-Finder (Remember to select the correct version for your Windows operating system.)
Download, and unzip the directory to a familiar location on your PC. Look for the Pi Finder.exe file and run it. Once Pi Finder is running, simply click “Find My Pi” and it will carry out a search for any Raspberry Pis on your network. Once complete, you will be able to see the IP address of your Pi and even access an SSH terminal direct from the app. However if like me you are not yet familiar with all the commands you can use this IP in Notepad++ to create a visual link into your Pi.
What Next?
- Configure Network configuration files
- Enable/Setup WiFi connection