Python socket bind to any IP?
Question:
I have a small one sided message sender that works while I specify the IP to connect to in code, however, I am having trouble allowing the socket to accept connections from any IP. Here is the line that is the problem.
mySocket = socket.socket ( socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM )
mySocket.bind ( ( '', 2727 ) )
The '' is for localhost, and it works if I manually enter IP, eg '192.168.1.106', however, how can I leave it open to all? Or am I using the wrong connection type for this?
Answers:
If you want to bind to all available IPv4 addresses, specify 0.0.0.0 as your IP address. If you’re behind a router and wish to have your socket internet-accessible, rather than just available on your LAN, you’ll need to set up a port forwarding rule so that users outside your LAN can access the service.
See the following ServerFault question for more info on 0.0.0.0: https://serverfault.com/questions/78048/whats-the-difference-between-ip-address-0-0-0-0-and-127-0-0-1
Binding to 0.0.0.0 will allow it to accept connections from any IPv4 address that can route to it.
Binding to '' has the same effect as to '0.0.0.0' makes the transition to IPv6 easier.
Depending on the OS, opening a socket.AF_INET6 socket listens to IPv4 and IPv6.
I have a small one sided message sender that works while I specify the IP to connect to in code, however, I am having trouble allowing the socket to accept connections from any IP. Here is the line that is the problem.
mySocket = socket.socket ( socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM )
mySocket.bind ( ( '', 2727 ) )
The '' is for localhost, and it works if I manually enter IP, eg '192.168.1.106', however, how can I leave it open to all? Or am I using the wrong connection type for this?
If you want to bind to all available IPv4 addresses, specify 0.0.0.0 as your IP address. If you’re behind a router and wish to have your socket internet-accessible, rather than just available on your LAN, you’ll need to set up a port forwarding rule so that users outside your LAN can access the service.
See the following ServerFault question for more info on 0.0.0.0: https://serverfault.com/questions/78048/whats-the-difference-between-ip-address-0-0-0-0-and-127-0-0-1
Binding to 0.0.0.0 will allow it to accept connections from any IPv4 address that can route to it.
Binding to '' has the same effect as to '0.0.0.0' makes the transition to IPv6 easier.
Depending on the OS, opening a socket.AF_INET6 socket listens to IPv4 and IPv6.