our software allows administrators to see user ip addresses which, fortunately, cloudlfare doesn’t mask or group into one… but every once in a while i’m seeing an address as follows:
2600:1700:e351:1420:adee:699:1473:a0ba
what is this? thanks!
It’s an IPv6 IP address.
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Check below document please:
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/sections/200805497-Restoring-Visitor-IPs
i’m not sure i get what that link is all about? should i make changes to my Cloudflare setup?
No need to make any changes. That’s an IPv6 address from a visitor using AT&T’s network.
As stated no need for any changes.
This might help you understand a bit more about what IPV6 is.
Internet Protocol version 6 ( IPv6 ) is the most recent version of the [Internet Protocol] IPv6 - Wikipedia
Basically all the addresses on Internet have started to run out using IPv4 - so a new protocol was developed to hopefully resolve that problem.
IPv4 address exhaustion
IPv4 and v6 are like addresses on mailbox except for Internet locations.
yes, i boned up on ipv4 vs ipv6, but the link kocakserdar1 provided threw me for a loop, the heading in the link reads “restoring visitor ip’s” which led me to believe that i should/could do something to “restore” the ip’s showing on my website so they all display like ipv4… anyway, i clearly misunderstood what he was trying to tell me with his link…
so sdayman, how can you tell it’s an at&t network?
IP address lookup:
Sorry for misunderstanding. It was an ipv6 address only.
Regarding my post, If ip address of your visitor looks incorrect (if you see Cloudflare ip address instead of real ip address), you should restore visitor’s ip address via above document.
How will you know it is correct ip or not?
- visit your site or app
- then find what is your ip address in the logs.
- and compare your ip address with following result: IP Address Lookup - IP Location Lookup For Any IP Address
If your ip address from logs of your site/app has the same value with result of whatismyip.com, No need for any changes.
The IP address in the original post isn’t a Cloudflare IP address, so visitor IP address is being restored.
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Yes, just wanted to clarify “what is restoring ip address”. Sorry for misunderstanding again.
@robert5 no need for any changes.
Best regards.
my website has a feature/extension that allows admins to see a users ip address and then click on it to see more details… the ip lookup service that it linked to was utrace which apparently can’t resolve ipv6 ip addresses, so it was returning an error, which led me to believe someting was wrong with the “strange looking” ip address i asked about… i changed the link to another service and all is good now! thanks again!
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Good to know. BTW, if you want you may disable IPV6 using Cloudflare API.
interesting, is there a reason i would want to do this?
Not neccessary in general. That’s why I said … in case
“if you want” I mean to prevent that Weird looking or IPV6 
so i’m wondering if i can change the way ip addresses are being displayed, i.e. have ipv6 addresses display as ipv4 addresses? before i started using Cloudflare all of our board member ip addresses were being displayed in the ipv4 format (short length), now many of the same member ip addresses are being displayed in the ipv6 format (very long length)… the long length of ipv6 addresses is creating a prob on smaller devices in terms of how the overall page layout is displayed, it shifts objects because of its length… thanks!
In your case my first advice would be to make changes to the layout so it does not break anymore. IPv6 needs to be longer as it contains a larger address space and (one day) in the future you will have to deal with that anyhow as it will be standard (maybe not you personally, but rather you grandchildren 
).
If you absolutely do not want to go that route you could either (if you dont rewrite IP addresses and take the Cloudflare’s) disable IPv6 altogether or (if do rewrite them and take the client’s) enable Pseudo-IPv4 from https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/202494830-Pseudo-IPv4-Supporting-IPv6-addresses-in-legacy-IPv4-applications.
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thanks sandro, and good advice, i went ahead and edited my page layout to accommodate the long ipv6 address…
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