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When I run command "ipconfig" in Windows command line, I am expecting to see my IP address that I have in the LAN I am connected to. But besides that I see many, many entries.

Can someone explain what all these are about:

enter image description here

What is 192.168.56.1 for example? Buy the way I have Filezilla server running on my computer and when I go to 

ftp://192.168.56.1

in chrome I see the folders in my ftp server. But when I shutdown FTP server and run "ipconfig" in command line I still see this entry with 

192.168.56.1

so I am a bit confused. Thanks.

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  • 2
    Servers do not set ip addresses, whether ftp/http/smtp... they all use whatever ip address that is available or localhost/127.0.0.1 They could use the 192.168.56.1 address but they would not create the network adapter. You must have VirtualBox installed on your computer and it created that 192.168.56.1 network adapter. Which only would be used if you were running a second OS on your computer. Disable/delete the x.x.56.1 network adapter if you do not run Virtaulbox anymore.
    – Logman
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 19:55
  • The tunnel adapters are from Virtualbox virtual networking.
    – Logman
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 20:00
  • No, they aren't. Any adapters VirtualBox creates look like normal "Ethernet" adapters (there's one in the middle). "Tunnel" adapters are usually internal to Windows.
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 21:02
  • How can I disable a network adapter and how will I reach my ftp server if I disable it?
    – Koray Tugay
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 9:51

3 Answers 3

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Windows supports having many network interfaces, for example you could have both wireless and wired Ethernet on the same laptop. Each of those would be its own network adapter. It's also possible to have more than one of each type, say two Ethernet ports, which might be useful on a server.

Normally you would only connect one at a time. Say you are connected to wireless, you probably would not also connect your wired interface by plugging a cable in. In this case, you would see Media disconnected under the Ethernet adapter Local Area Network, as you do see in your screenshot.

In addition to these hardware interfaces, there are also software interfaces. One common use for these type is with VPN software. These interfaces do not exist in hardware, but you can send data to them just the same, and what happens is defined by the software. A VPN would take the data and encrypt it before sending it to another interface.

Your 192.168.56.1 interface is named VirtualBox which leads me to conclude it is a software interface set up by the VirtualBox software, for the purpose of creating a "fake" network between your "real" computer and the "virtual" computer. This means your "real" computer has a software interface with the address of 192.168.56.1 and the "virtual" computer has some other address on that "fake" network, probably 192.168.56.2 or something.

The FTP server ties into all this because it "listens" for connections on every interface you have at the same time. You have an IP address on a wireless network as 192.168.1.3 and you also have an IP address on a VirtualBox software network as 192.168.56.1. The FTP server does not know/care which one is best; it just listens on both of them.

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  • Yeah thanks, ftp - localhost works as well. Strange. I did not know that.
    – Koray Tugay
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 9:54
  • Oh yeah, I forgot that there is also an interface for loopback, which is set as 127.0.0.1. Windows does not show it, but Linux does show it in its ifconfig command.
    – Kevin Panko
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 18:25
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The headings above each section explain what they are (to certain extent).

Two wireless networks "Wireless LAN Adapter Wireless Network Connection" and "Wireless LAN Adapter Wireless Network Connection 2". Only one of which appears to actually be connected (the one marked "2" may be an artifact of a wireless card change or a Windows quirk or something of the sort).

Two wired networks "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection" and "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2". Neither of which is connected the second of which is possibly similar to the second wireless network or may in fact be a second device/connection.

One bluetooth network "Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection". Disconnected.

One virtual network device (created by VirtualBox) "Ethernet adapter VirtualBox Host-Only Network". Connected and likely available only on your current host (though possibly not).

Two networks related to IPv6 functionality "Tunner adapter 6TO4 Adapter" and "Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface". Both disconnected.

And six networks I believe are also related to IPv6 functionality. The various isatap entries.

As Logman mentioned in his comment. Services use IP addresses they do not create them. Your FTP service was available on that 192.168.56.1 IP address for some reason (configuration or auto-detection or something else) but stopping the service will not release that device's IP address configuration.

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192.168.56.1 is the virtual server you are running. If you run netstat -n it will list all of your connections if you look for 192.168.56.1 you will see Time_Wait most likely. It is like that because it is waiting for someone to connect to it. it probably still shows the IP in ipconfig because it has reserved that address for itself so it doesn't get changed and you have to give out a new address every time you restart the server.

Your IP address is 192.68.1.3 as shown under "Wireless LAN Adapter Wireless Network Connection"

192.168.1.1 is the Gateway (your Router)

these IPs are only the Lan IPs not the external (World Wide Web) IPs

go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ to see your external IP

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  • No, 192.168.56.1 is not the address of the VirtualBox device. Also, that is not what TIME_WAIT means. Please see superuser.com/questions/173535/…
    – Kevin Panko
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 21:03
  • @Kevin Panko ok so that ip is listed under Virtualbox adapter because it isn't the virtualbox. That makes sense. lol. and essentially time_wait is still waiting for any further information. keyword waiting. My answer is not wrong just worded differently. so you shouldn't down vote me for being 95 percent right.
    – jmc302005
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 21:13
  • That address is the VirtualBox adapter for this device; it is not "the virtual server". It's not just worded differently, it is wrong.
    – Kevin Panko
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 21:19
  • and an adapter needs to be set up for a server. it is server client. not server adapter.
    – jmc302005
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 21:45
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    Your question about interfaces, Servers jobs are to wait for connections and serve them information. such as a ftp server. So the server doesn't care what interface is being used so it listens to them all. Them all meaning any network interfaces you have installed. They can be either software interface or hardware interface. Software being the Virtualbox interface shown in the screen shot above. Hardware being your Wireless interface in the screenshot above. Another example of hardware interface is a Wired Ethernet connection.
    – jmc302005
    Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 17:52

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