Get User External IP in PHP without using X-Forwarded-For

[l11h]

Hi, I was thinking if there is a way of getting the users IP address without using X-Forwarded-For or any headers? 

The reason for this is the server is behind a loadbalancer that cannot do SSL Termination 

 

HTTP works fine but HTTPS does not but I guess this is because of no SSL Termination capabilities so it cannot add the headers so the server just sees the loadbalancer IP 

 

So is there a way of doing this without changing the loadbalancer? 

Maybe an external service that can do this? 

 

Thanks 

[burnttoastnice]

If your load balancer can't insert a header for it due to the SSL Termination thing you mentioned, then I'm not too sure how else it can be done. If possible, you may be able to install your SSL cert on the load balancer, which may then be able to intercept the SSL connection transparently and insert the IP forwarding header for your server.

 

I've never tried any of this before so take this with a grain of salt.

 

Spoiler

 

$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]

is usually the way to do it, but if you're behind a gateway or another server I'm not too sure how reliable it is.

 

[l11h]

Hi burnttoastnice, 

 

Thanks for the reply

$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"] gives me the IP of the gateway which is now what I want 

 

I know if I get another loadbalancer that can do SSL Termination it will work I have tested this 

But due to limitations cannot move over to the new loadbalancer right now 

 

Is there no way of maybe using an external service to give the users external IP? 

 

Thanks 

[SittingDuck]

What a load balance does it reverse proxy like that way

 

Client -> Balancer -> Server #1

 

The client will do a request to Balancer and balancer do a request to server #1 and display it to client. In theory, since server #1 is getting a request from Balancer, it should get the balancer IP. And I'm not sure in practice what it is, it's better that you dump the response headers on balancer and server #1 so we can learn more.