How To Obtain "IP Address" And Also the "Port" for my iMac ?

[Robert4]

Hello,

Not too sharp with this "stuff" anymore.
Blame it on Sr. Citizen staus.

Might someone, please, tell me, very exactly, how to go about
obtaining the "IP Address" for my iMac, and also the "Port" ?

A program I am trying to install, HamLib, requires both of them.

Thank you very much,
Bob

 

[gilby101]

The IP Address of your Mac, might be:
1) its address on your LAN. System Settings > Network displays IP address, or System Settings > Wi-Fi > Details
2) the address your internet router shows to the world. Safari to https://www.whatsmyip.org/

Port requires more context. It would usually be set by the application. Please provide a link to HamLib.

 

[Nermal]

If it's same HamLib that I just found when searching, then it appears to be for connecting to ham radios, presumably network-connected ones. You'd want the address and port of the radio, not your computer.

There is no reason for software on your computer to ask you for the IP address of the same computer, as it can just look it up by itself.

 

[JustAnExpat]

I looked up HamLib, and it's an API for Ham Radios (per https://hamlib.github.io/) . I read the ReadMe file for MacOS X found at https://sourceforge.net/projects/hamlib/ Are you referring to MacPorts?

If it's the communication port for the Ham Radio equipment, it will be whatever the hardware manufacturer uses for the protocol.

Different protocols use different ports to allow software to communicate on the internet. For example, Port 21 is for the "TCP" protocol, which allows a computer to go online. Port 443 is used for the HTTPS protocol, which allows connections to HTTPS websites. If you're using a Firewall, you may have to open up the relevant port.

 

[Robert4]

Hi,

Thanks all for help.
Wish I was sharp enough with this to answer your questions.

Here are two links that might add to my initial query.

The HamLib program, when installing, at least for me, asks for the "IP Address (pc or radio ?)" and "Port"
Very, very confusing. I assumed it was for the mac, but maybe it is for the radio ?

Ham Radio Control Library

GitHub.io Web pages

hamlib.github.io

3.3. hamlib

If it is for the mac running Sonoma, I can pull up an IP address.
But, how would I pull up the "Port" ? Doesn't seem to be a simple option for that.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[ipaqrat]

Awww, Bob, your story got a story <tears of joy and hope>. Sounds like an AI generated an unhelpful spew and image, about how nice we all are to dig into this with you. <sniff> Not linking it here because it's ********. The Story, not the nice part. We are all very very nice. Except me. I'm mean. But the rest of MacrRumors is very, very, very, nice, indeed. What were you asking? Oh, yeah...

Most responses here correctly describe TCP/IP network Ports. And those answers are correct. In this context, PORT belongs to the protocols various applications use. There are many, many ports. HTTP is 80. HTTPS is 443. SFTP is 22, etc., etc., Your Mac listens for ALL of them while the associated application or service is running.

HOWEVAH...​

It is possible that you need to determine a COM PORT -- an old-school Serial Port with an address number representing a PHYSICAL HARDWARE SOCKET for a CABLE, at the end of which the app expects to find a radio. The bad news is that Macs with USB don't have Serial ports, per se. The good news is that you can get a USB to SERIAL TTY adapter. They're not expensive, though you should avoid cheapies. Try Belkin or BlackBox adapter with the FTDI chipset, which doesn't require extra drivers.

<< Edit: just occurred to me that the radio might have come with such an adapter cable if it was offered as being Mac-Aware at all. >>

THEN with the gear connected, you need to determine that pesky physical port address (which the Mac OS will have picked out for it). It's possible that the Mac OS System Information utility will detect and show a COM port for the adapter. If so, you're off to the races. If not, you might have to resort to the Terminal. I'm not much good, here, because I avoid command prompts like the plague (I picked Mac back in 1987 specifically to not confront a gall dern command prompt ever again! I digress...) I have had luck identifying serial com ports with these commands in the Mac Terminal:

ls /dev/tty*
then Find the device (adapted TTY port) that's associated to your usb port.

ioreg -c IOSerialBSDClient | grep usb
then find the IOSerialCallOutDevice

Hope this gets you a little further, at least. There must be terminal-using engineers in MacRumors somewhere with better advice, now that the scope of the issue is broadened out a bit. Maybe someone has a shell script to run, or even an app to get reliable port specs.

 

[JustAnExpat]

I read your attachment. By port, they are referring to the physical port that connects the equipment to the computer. So, which computer do you have, and what type of connection is your equipment being connected? Is this a (Physical!!) Port 9600 to USB C (USB C is found on modern MacBooks)?

 

[gilby101]

The HamLib program, when installing, at least for me, asks for the "IP Address (pc or radio ?)" and "Port"
Very, very confusing. I assumed it was for the mac, but maybe it is for the radio ?

I think I am right in saying that all the replies, so far, are from people (like me) who have little idea about how Hamlib is used.

Hamlib appears to be 1) a set of command line utilities, and 2) an interface to be used by GUI apps to control ham radios.

Here is the Hamlib Wiki which starts with its architecture.

Is that right?

How are you wanting to use Hamlib? You don't seem like a developer.

Are you using a GUI app which uses Hamlib? Maybe one of the more these 30+ apps?

 

[Feek]

@Robert4
Which radio are you trying to connect and using what software? Stuff like wsjt-x and fldigi generally don’t need hamlib installing manually, it’s bundled and you just configure the software to talk to the radio.

73

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"The HamLib program, when installing, at least for me, asks for the "IP Address (pc or radio ?)" and "Port"
Very, very confusing. I assumed it was for the mac, but maybe it is for the radio ?"

I'm going to just take a GUESS, that the program is asking about the RADIO's IP address and which port the RADIO has "open" on it. You enter this info so that the program "knows" where to look and where to "address".

Of course, you have to know how to determine this information from the radio itself. Does your radio have a display panel?
If so, is there a "settings" pane of some sort?
Is there a label on the radio somewhere (perhaps near the serial number) that specifies this info?

I'm not a ham radio guy, but a friend has an ICOM 7300 and I've helped him upgrade the firmware a few times.

There must be ham radio forums.
Have you posed your questions there, as well as here?

 

[ipaqrat]

OP wrote:
"The HamLib program, when installing, at least for me, asks for the "IP Address (pc or radio ?)" and "Port"
Very, very confusing. I assumed it was for the mac, but maybe it is for the radio ?"

I'm going to just take a GUESS, that the program is asking about the RADIO's IP address and which port the RADIO has "open" on it. You enter this info so that the program "knows" where to look and where to "address".

Of course, you have to know how to get this information "out of" the radio itself. Does your radio have a display panel?
If so, is there a "settings" pane of some sort?

I'm not a ham radio guy, but a friend has an ICOM 7300 and I've helped him upgrade the firmware a few times.

There must be ham radio forums.
Have you posed your questions there, as well as here?

This is the likeliest scenario, really, where the radio joins a WI-FI network for command and control. The prospect of a radio set that demands an old-school serial connection is pretty remote. And yes, the IP address and port have to be agreed upon between the Mac and the radio set.

That said, I still find bits and pieces of networking, storage and SCADA equipment that leap up and surprise me with DB-9, RS-232, and sometimes even 50 pin Centronics SCSI, that are also on a TCP-IP network. Like I drive 50 miles to the bunker, only to earn myself another three hours round trip to fetch that old desktop chassis, sitting in the corner with spiders living in it, and a note that says DO NOT THROW OUT. And afterwards, I append to the note for the next operator, "Ha ha, enjoy your drive!" because no one still alive has permissions to update records in the configuration management database. Circle of Life.