Get Client Machine Name in PHP

Question

This program only returns the client machine name in localhost only

echo gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);

If it is run from an online server, then computer name is not shown and some other information is being shown. So is there anyway to get the computer name in php when the program runs from online server.

@Borealid: The program whic i typed here din came. let me edit it again. please excuse for the inconvinience — Deepak, Feb 28 '11 at 12:39
possible duplicate of [client computer name](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3003385/client-computer-name) — Gordon, Feb 28 '11 at 13:04

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 28 '11 at 12:37

13

What's this "other information"? An IP address?

In PHP, you use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] to get the IP address of the remote client, then you can use gethostbyaddr() to try and conver that IP into a hostname - but not all IPs have a reverse mapping configured.

answered Feb 28 '11 at 12:37

Marc B

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@Marc B: This worked fine for me in localhost. But when it is put online, i didn't get the same. – Deepak Feb 28 '11 at 12:41
@Deepak: You get whatever is in DNS for the remote host. You cannot forcibly reach into a remote user's computer and find their machine name - they don't send that information to you. – Borealid Feb 28 '11 at 12:42
What are you getting? If you're connecting to a completely seperate server, you will get something different. There's no way around that. – Marc B Feb 28 '11 at 12:43
@Marc B: Static-51.14.34.36.ip-dsl.ekm.eth.net. This is what i get when i test this online. – Deepak Feb 28 '11 at 12:45
1

Yes, and that's to be expected. If you run your browser and webserver on the same machine, it'll use the local loopback address (127.0.0.1/localhost). When you access the site on a server elsewhere, the script will see the browser's "external" address - could be your NAT router, could be your ISP's proxy server, etc... You won't see localhost, because it's NOT A LOCAL CONNECTION anymore. – Marc B Feb 28 '11 at 12:46
Here why I need this is because, need to know the client system configuration like name, ram etc for making sure that my application runs perfectly on that system. If the system does have some predefined configuration, i cant just throw a message that it wont work there. – Deepak Feb 28 '11 at 12:50
You can't access that data with javascript or extract it from HTTP headers - that information is NOT accessible to anything you could do, unless you want to use something like ActiveX or a signed Java applet. – Marc B Feb 28 '11 at 13:00
This worked for me in my LOCAL NETWORK : echo gethostbyaddr($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]); – cetipabo Aug 30 '18 at 12:30

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '11 at 12:36

7

Not in PHP.
phpinfo(32) contains everything PHP able to know about particular client, and there is no [windows] computer name

answered Feb 28 '11 at 12:36

Your Common Sense

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 08 '17 at 07:27

In opposite to the most comments, I think it is possible to get the client's hostname (machine name) in plain PHP, but it's a little bit "dirty".

By requesting "NTLM" authorization via HTTP header...

if (!isset($headers['AUTHORIZATION']) || substr($headers['AUTHORIZATION'],0,4) !== 'NTLM'){
    header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
    header('WWW-Authenticate: NTLM');
    exit;
}

You can force the client to send authorization credentials via NTLM format. The NTLM hash sent by the client to server contains, besides the login credtials, the clients machine name. This works cross-browser and PHP only.

$auth = $headers['AUTHORIZATION'];

if (substr($auth,0,5) == 'NTLM ') {
    $msg = base64_decode(substr($auth, 5));
    if (substr($msg, 0, 8) != "NTLMSSPx00")
            die('error header not recognised');

    if ($msg[8] == "x01") {
            $msg2 = "NTLMSSPx00x02"."x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00".
                    "x01x02x81x01".
                    "x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00".
                    "x00x00x00x00x30x00x00x00";

            header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
            header('WWW-Authenticate: NTLM '.trim(base64_encode($msg2)));
            exit;
    }
    else if ($msg[8] == "x03") {
            function get_msg_str($msg, $start, $unicode = true) {
                    $len = (ord($msg[$start+1]) * 256) + ord($msg[$start]);
                    $off = (ord($msg[$start+5]) * 256) + ord($msg[$start+4]);
                    if ($unicode)
                            return str_replace("\0", '', substr($msg, $off, $len));
                    else
                            return substr($msg, $off, $len);
            }
            $user = get_msg_str($msg, 36);
            $domain = get_msg_str($msg, 28);
            $workstation = get_msg_str($msg, 44);
            print "You are $user from $workstation.$domain";
    }
}

And yes, it's not a plain and easy "read the machine name function", because the user is prompted with an dialog, but it's an example, that it is indeed possible (against the other statements here).

Full code can be found here: https://en.code-bude.net/2017/05/07/how-to-read-client-hostname-in-php/

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:46

0

PHP Manual says:

gethostname (PHP >= 5.3.0) gethostname — Gets the host name

Look:

<?php
echo gethostname(); // may output e.g,: sandie
// Or, an option that also works before PHP 5.3
echo php_uname('n'); // may output e.g,: sandie
?>

http://php.net/manual/en/function.gethostname.php

Enjoy

answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:46

whoiz

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It will not output the client machine (system) name it is giving only server machine name. – Ragavendran Ramesh Mar 14 '14 at 08:50
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I am surprised this has so many up votes - considering its just as wrong as Swetha's answer – Mike Furlender Feb 28 '15 at 00:29
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I doubt this is enjoyable. – Andrew Sep 21 '15 at 16:36
Yes! This is incorrect answer. How come it gets many upvotes? – Jornes Dec 02 '15 at 02:41
This returns the server name, not the client's machine name. – Andres Zapata Jun 23 '16 at 00:02

score -4 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 12 '14 at 23:00

-4

gethostname() using the IP from $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] while accessing the script remotely will return the IP of your internet connection, not your computer.

edited Dec 12 '14 at 23:00

Andy Jones

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answered Dec 12 '14 at 22:57

Senya Peter Cullen

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Where should we put in our ip address if `gethostname()` take in 0 parameter ? – code-8 Oct 09 '15 at 18:42

score -11 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 14 '14 at 20:54

-11

Try

echo getenv('COMPUTERNAME');

This will return your computername.

edited Jun 14 '14 at 20:54

Danny Beckett

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answered Oct 15 '13 at 08:57

SwR

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He is asking for client computer name not server – Leonard Apr 13 '14 at 06:31
The OP asked for get client's machine name(User Account Name > Windows) – divy3993 Aug 09 '15 at 16:57
1

Please add some explanation to your answer such that others can learn from it - where does this environment variable come from? – Nico Haase Oct 17 '20 at 20:25

Get Client Machine Name in PHP

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