My IP Address

What "your IP" actually means here

This is the public IP address your current network connection presents to this server — whichever ISP, mobile network, office network, or VPN you're routed through right now. It's not a fixed, permanent identifier: it changes when you switch networks, when a VPN is connected or disconnected, and often periodically anyway if your ISP assigns dynamic addresses. Reload this page from a different network and expect a different value.

Locking down SSH access to just your IP

The most direct practical use of this value is tightening a firewall rule that's currently open to the world. Rather than allowing SSH (port 22) from 0.0.0.0/0, restrict it to this exact address as a /32:

• On EC2, add or edit the SSH rule in the instance's security group and set the source to this IP.
• On Lightsail, do the same in the instance's networking/firewall tab.

Because this value can change between sessions, a rule locked to today's IP may need updating next time you connect from a different network — worth checking here again if SSH access unexpectedly stops working.

Checking whether this IP is already covered by a rule

If a security group or firewall rule already allows a range rather than a single address (an office's public IP block, for example), use the CIDR Calculator's range-check tool to confirm whether this exact IP falls inside it before assuming access will or won't work.