$_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”] gives server IP rather than visitor IP

Question

I\'m trying to track IP addresses of visitors. When using $_SERVER[\"REMOTE_ADDR\"], I get the server\'s IP address rather than the visitor\'s. I tried this on

Answer 1

With PHP 7.4 I do it like this:

$ipaddress = '';
if (isset($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
else if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
else if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED'];
else if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR'];
else if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED'];
else if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']))
    $ipaddress = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];

But keep in mind that REMOTE_ADDR is the only reliable IP address that you can get. All other values can easily be manipulated. This is theoretically also possible for REMOTE_ADDRESS, but that would require to spoof the IP address.