Obtaining an external IP address in memory for use in a Firewall Rule

Obtaining an external IP address in memory for use in a Firewall Rule

By Strictly-Software

As I am currently using an ISP which constantly changes my external IP address due to excessive use of DCHP, I have to regularly update external firewalls on servers to allow my computer remote access.

This is obviously a right pain to do and I have no idea why my ISP changes my IP address so much when my old ISP used DCHP and kept it for months at a time.

Therefore I created this little noddy VBScript to sit on my desktop to obtain my IP address and hold it in my clipboard memory ready for me to just open up my firewall and paste it in.

The code uses the MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp object to obtain the IP address from an external website which just prints it on the page and I store the Response.Text into a variable.

I then use WScript.Shell object to open a new Notepad window and write the IP address out into it.

Then I use SendKeys to select the IP address and copy it into the clipboards memory before shutting down Notepad.

This means I can just quickly double click my desktop shortcut icon to obtain the IP address ready to paste it straight into a Firewall rule.

Check this script out and when you are ready and can see that hitting CTRL + V pastes the IP address out elsewhere you should remove the "TEST SECTION" and uncomment the part above it that closes down Notepad. This ensures you are not leaving empty objects around in your computers memory.

It's not exactly amazing code but it's very helpful at this time and saves a lot of time visiting a website manually to get my external IP address.

You might find this useful yourselves!

Option Explicit

Dim IPAddress, objShell
Dim objHTTP : Set objHTTP = WScript.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp")

'* Obtain external IP address and store it in a variable
objHTTP.Open "GET", "http://icanhazip.com", False
objHTTP.Send
IPAddress = objHTTP.ResponseText

'* Open Notepad
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "notepad.exe", 9

WScript.Sleep 1000

'* Write out the IP address to a blank notepad file
objShell.SendKeys IPAddress

'* select the IPAddress and copy it into memory
objShell.SendKeys "^{a}"
objShell.SendKeys "^{C}"

'* uncomment the following section and remove the "TEST SECTION" when you are ready

'* Close notepad with the IP address in clipboard ready to be pasted
'* Open Save Dialog
'* objShell.SendKeys("%{F4}")
'* Naviagate to Don't Save
'* objShell.SendKeys("{TAB}")
'* Exit Notepad
'* objShell.SendKeys("{ENTER}")

'* TEST SECTION - Proves that the IP address can be pasted elsewhere
WScript.Sleep 1000

'* Proof that the IP address is in the clipboard and can be pasted out
objShell.SendKeys "Test Paste Works"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
objShell.SendKeys "^{V}"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"
objShell.SendKeys "Try a manual CTRL and V to check the IP address is still in memory"
objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

'* Kill objects - DO NOT REMOVE!!
Set objShell = Nothing
Set objHTTP  = Nothing

By Strictly-Software

© 2018 Strictly-Software