I hope they give then to a charity/charitable person. I proposed to continue the service ad free, for free to them. Hopefully they accept my proposal. It would be such a shame for the service to become "enshittified" by some greedy company
Oh no, this has been my go-to site for connectivity tests (as example.com seems to be cached fairly aggressively by my browsers and that has misled me in the past). Ad-free, minimal, does exactly what it needs to and nothing more.
Rest in peace!
Edit: All these (great and much appreciated!) responses of alternatives are making me wonder if this should in fact be a standardized service that could then be offered as a public good in a similar way as pool.ntp.org.
Checking for generic Internet connectivity (i.e. not only having an IP address, but being able to reach public sites, these sites being non-cached, not-captive-portaled etc.) seems like a problem that too many apps, scripts, and devices are solving again and again.
If you have the resources to maintain it, you can contact the estate. (They'd like to sell the domains, so unless they're bundled with Brickshelf the highest bidder will probably be a traffic-farming company or something, but you never know.)
ifconfig.me is a similar service which I often use. It has a nice feature that if you do "curl ifconfig.me", you'll get only a string with the ip address, no markup.
On a Reddit post, someone mentioned ip.wtf that they created as a similar service. Aside from using it in a browser, it also provides a single IP address with curl ip.wtf, with less typing. I also like getting more information by using this: curl --json "" ip.wtf
We are experimenting with some design choices as we try to highlight all the IP metadata we have and move towards being an "internet data" company instead of just an IP location company.
I understand the data we have for your IP address is not front and center anymore. We have gone through several iterations of designs for our homepage, so if you have any suggestions, I will relay them to our team.
It's a service that shows visitors their own address and metadata about it. Seems fair to not want to provide that for free without some advertisement for the paid version or the company?
Our priority is always the developer experience and I apologize for the friction you are seeing here.
The issue is that we are truly in a unique space when it comes to internet data. We have gone through several iterations on how to present the full extent of data and not just your public IP address.
If you are a regular user of our service, you know that we have a very open access approach to our data. We provide most of our data for free through our website, we have a generous API, and we have a fully accurate open access licensed database. We also have more free services to be released!
Due to the open data approach, developers appreciate us. We are not trying to create any barriers or friction here, but we are trying to find a balance. If you have any suggestions that can encourage users to explore our data while simultaneously providing everyone with a frictionless experience with our data, please let me know.
Yes, but we also operate 1,000 servers across 400 cities in 130 countries to generate one of the most comprehensive internet measurement datasets possible and process more than 2 trillion yearly API requests.
Still, we really appreciate users and software that only use our service to get their public IP address.
My apologies if it seems like I'm speaking like a corporate bot. I always try to be as respectful as possible. To be completely honest, the decision to make changes to the homepage was quite difficult for us, but we are trying to figure out what we can do to improve adoption as we evolve.
I largely own the free product/service side of IPinfo, and it’s common for me to hear from developers that they didn’t know we have a free database they can download or we literally have this database for free on GCP and Snowflake. This happens with a lot of our products. For example, many of our users may even do not know we have a residential proxy detection database that we worked really hard to launch.
How can we improve the adoption of our service here? We would like users to explore the site and, at the same time, give us feedback on the areas where they’re facing friction.
I use ip.me it's not add free, but in curl you can have an ad free version by doing curl -4 ip.me or curl -6 ip.me since it will only send the ip when it detects curl I guess.
The problem with https://checkip.amazonaws.com is that it neither supports IPv6, nor claims that it will remain IPv4-only, so it's not clear what you'll get in the future.
No idea. All I can tell you is that it works and if I need to hard code a IP check like this then I’d rather rely on a big player like Google or cloudflare ns than someone’s project site
Not sure if I'd trust an undocumented Google feature without any SLA more, to be honest. Rumor has it that Google have discontinued a service or two before.
Could simply be that a bunch of invoices/billing are connected to months and they don't want to pay beyond the current month (to make sure they get their money for the domains).
> In Kevin’s own words on kevinloch.com: “I am also an amateur physicist, programmer, photographer, independent film producer (at WTF Productions) and AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego).” Kevin was also passionate about any and all things space related: the sky, the stars, and beyond; trying to find the meaning in how things work, why they work, and what would make them work better. His latest passion after moving back to Reston was soaking in the skyline from the rooftop of his apartment building and bicycling the paths of Reston and beyond.
I’m not anti-religion in any way, but this left a really bad taste in my mouth. Loch’s nephew (the pastor who led the service) kept saying that Loch wasn’t religious. Then he’d go straight back to talking about Christ, and reminiscing about times when Loch had participated in Christian ritual!
It’s one thing to volunteer your religious organization as a venue for a memorial, even for someone who wasn’t religious. It’s another to memorialize the person with an explicitly religious service.
Maybe Loch wouldn't have minded? I'm not religious, but I don't really care if I were memorialized with a religious service. My belief is that service is more for the people left behind than the one who died anyway.
"To honor Kevin’s “You be you” attitude, a “Come As You Are” Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at Fairfax Church of Christ. 3901 Rugby Road, Fairfax, VA 22033. A reception will follow at the church where you will be able to assemble your own Lego tribute to Kevin to take home. Lego bricks will be provided."
"In lieu of traditional flowers, you may bring or send Lego flowers. Those assembled before the service will be part of the Memorial display. Assembly space will be provided for any unassembled flowers. Traditional and Lego flowers can be sent to the church 7/2 between 9-4."
Suing small creators and businesses out of existence, scammy pricing policies (anything with the Star Wars license is overpriced 2-4x), increasing quality problems, very little in terms of own IP (in contrast to the 90s).
It takes time (typically some number of months) to get appointed as the executor of an estate, and then even more time for the executor to get effective control over the estate's assets.
Ah yeah, I missed part of my response I think. I was trying to say that he didn't pass away recently, but maybe we just noticed it because the estate (or the executor) just started to manage this asset and left that message in the domain.
ip4.me and related websites actually inspired me to create a more-whimsical version of the website, which I call ipkitten.com. Not only do you get your IP address, User Agent, and approximate geolocation, but you also get a kitten GIF!
It also works from the command line, like this:
$ curl ipkitten.com
4.2.2.2
I am sure that Kevin has saved engineers and other IT people tons of headache and time with his simple, helpful, and ad-free tools.
Don’t know where I first discovered it, but I have been using ipkitten for years when working with non-tech friends, family, and clients. It seems to help with the intimidation filter of getting into the weeds, so thank you!
96 comments
[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 148 ms ] threadPerhaps the downvoters would care to explain their actions?
RIP Kevin Loch
I hope they give then to a charity/charitable person. I proposed to continue the service ad free, for free to them. Hopefully they accept my proposal. It would be such a shame for the service to become "enshittified" by some greedy company
Rest in peace!
Edit: All these (great and much appreciated!) responses of alternatives are making me wonder if this should in fact be a standardized service that could then be offered as a public good in a similar way as pool.ntp.org.
Checking for generic Internet connectivity (i.e. not only having an IP address, but being able to reach public sites, these sites being non-cached, not-captive-portaled etc.) seems like a problem that too many apps, scripts, and devices are solving again and again.
I do like the curl-ability of that one a lot, though, and on my own computer I can just configure an alias or shell function for it :)
You can `curl https://ipinfo.io/` and get a JSON blob back with info on your current IP. If you pass an IP explicitly you can get info back on it, for example `curl https://ipinfo.io/104.26.7.98`. Easy to combine with jq also for use in scripts: `curl https://ipinfo.io/104.26.7.98 | jq -r '.ip'`
For personal use it's free, and they have reasonable pricing for large volume. No affiliation on my part, just a happy user.
https://json.ipv4.myip.wtf/
https://json.ipv6.myip.wtf/
https://json.myip.wtf/
I highly recommend you check out the page: https://ipinfo.io/myip
I understand the data we have for your IP address is not front and center anymore. We have gone through several iterations of designs for our homepage, so if you have any suggestions, I will relay them to our team.
The issue is that we are truly in a unique space when it comes to internet data. We have gone through several iterations on how to present the full extent of data and not just your public IP address.
If you are a regular user of our service, you know that we have a very open access approach to our data. We provide most of our data for free through our website, we have a generous API, and we have a fully accurate open access licensed database. We also have more free services to be released!
Due to the open data approach, developers appreciate us. We are not trying to create any barriers or friction here, but we are trying to find a balance. If you have any suggestions that can encourage users to explore our data while simultaneously providing everyone with a frictionless experience with our data, please let me know.
You serve people their IP address. There’s tens of sites doing the same in this very thread.
Still, we really appreciate users and software that only use our service to get their public IP address.
I largely own the free product/service side of IPinfo, and it’s common for me to hear from developers that they didn’t know we have a free database they can download or we literally have this database for free on GCP and Snowflake. This happens with a lot of our products. For example, many of our users may even do not know we have a residential proxy detection database that we worked really hard to launch.
How can we improve the adoption of our service here? We would like users to explore the site and, at the same time, give us feedback on the areas where they’re facing friction.
This API endpoint has its dedicated stack and infrastructure to support unlimited lookups.
Also, for IPv6 connection use: https://v6.ipinfo.io/ip
PS: I am the DevRel of IPinfo.
Cloudflare: https://ipv4.icanhazip.com + https://ipv6.icanhazip.com
Akamai: https://ipv4.whatismyip.akamai.com + https://ipv6.whatismyip.akamai.com
The problem with https://checkip.amazonaws.com is that it neither supports IPv6, nor claims that it will remain IPv4-only, so it's not clear what you'll get in the future.
https://cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace
[0] https://blog.apnic.net/2021/06/17/how-a-small-free-ip-tool-s...
Don’t have the command on hand but easily searchable
DNS also runs a higher risk of being cached or mangled somewhere along the way by middleboxes. HTTPS avoids that problem.
RIP
All respect to the deceased, but there's always at least a tiny part of me that is suspicious of anything taking place on April 1.
So much for leaving a legacy with your domain name.
https://www.loudounfuneralchapel.com/obituaries/Kevin-Loch/#...
https://bsrender.io/
https://nensus.com/kl-net/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lAuXWARqt8
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10414562/
It’s one thing to volunteer your religious organization as a venue for a memorial, even for someone who wasn’t religious. It’s another to memorialize the person with an explicitly religious service.
"In lieu of traditional flowers, you may bring or send Lego flowers. Those assembled before the service will be part of the Memorial display. Assembly space will be provided for any unassembled flowers. Traditional and Lego flowers can be sent to the church 7/2 between 9-4."
Lidl (if you live in a country where they are active), BlueBricks, or Cobi. But there are half a dozen others which are excellent.
Used Lego is fine, though.
Could you elaborate?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357522
McKinsey types have taken over.
Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20884542 The "Held der Steine" logo lawsuit story is what has made me aware of their practices.
Thanks Kevin.
Massive Aircraft Carrier made of Lego, 200,000 bricks, 350LB - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415448 - Dec 2008 (3 comments)
If anyone is looking for an alternative site to check their v6 and v4 addresses, check out this one here:
https://ip6.biz/
https://www.brickfanatics.com/tributes-for-founder-lego-webs...
Lots of solutions out there. I like wasab.is https://wasab.is
curl wasab.is curl wasab.is/json
It also works from the command line, like this:
I am sure that Kevin has saved engineers and other IT people tons of headache and time with his simple, helpful, and ad-free tools.I didn’t realize it was command line friendly!