PowerShell v3 Get IP from HostName

This is a topic lots of folks have covered. I just revisited it and thought I would jot it down for posteritys sake. Note, I took the basic C# from this link:

Get IP Address from DNS Hostname in C#

Specifically, I just needed to know what the IPv4 address was, so, I used this approach:

([System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses(www.bing.com)[0]).IPAddressToString;

Since there may be more than one IP Address, you need to deal with it as is appropriate in your case. Here, I just needed 1 address I could use for testing a public internet IP address. If you want to back up a step and look at the broader result set from the query, here is what you will get:

[System.Net.Dns]::GetHostAddresses(www.bing.com)

Address           : 601988312

AddressFamily     : InterNetwork

ScopeId           :

IsIPv6Multicast   : False

IsIPv6LinkLocal   : False

IsIPv6SiteLocal   : False

IsIPv6Teredo      : False

IPAddressToString : 216.156.225.35

Address           : 551656664

AddressFamily     : InterNetwork

ScopeId           :

IsIPv6Multicast   : False

IsIPv6LinkLocal   : False

IsIPv6SiteLocal   : False

IsIPv6Teredo      : False

IPAddressToString : 216.156.225.32

In this case, I simply took the lowest IP address (array index 0) and grabbed the IPAddressToString property.  The method, .GetHostAddresses, has the following definition:

[System.Net.Dns].GetMethod(GetHostAddresses)

Name                       : GetHostAddresses

DeclaringType              : System.Net.Dns

ReflectedType              : System.Net.Dns

MemberType                 : Method

MetadataToken              : 100671134

Module                     : System.dll

IsSecurityCritical         : True

IsSecuritySafeCritical     : True

IsSecurityTransparent      : False

MethodHandle               : System.RuntimeMethodHandle

Attributes                 : PrivateScope, Public, Static, HideBySig

CallingConvention          : Standard

ReturnType                 : System.Net.IPAddress[]

ReturnTypeCustomAttributes : System.Net.IPAddress[]

ReturnParameter            : System.Net.IPAddress[]

IsGenericMethod            : False

IsGenericMethodDefinition  : False

ContainsGenericParameters  : False

IsPublic                   : True

IsPrivate                  : False

IsFamily                   : False

IsAssembly                 : False

IsFamilyAndAssembly        : False

IsFamilyOrAssembly         : False

IsStatic                   : True

IsFinal                    : False

IsVirtual                  : False

IsHideBySig                : True

IsAbstract                 : False

IsSpecialName              : False

IsConstructor              : False

And, accepts the following parameters:

[System.Net.Dns].GetMethod(GetHostAddresses).GetParameters()

ParameterType   : System.String

Name            : hostNameOrAddress

DefaultValue    :

RawDefaultValue :

MetadataToken   : 134226623

Position        : 0

Attributes      : None

Member          : System.Net.IPAddress[] GetHostAddresses(System.String)

IsIn            : False

IsOut           : False

IsLcid          : False

IsRetval        : False

IsOptional      : False

This quick approach allows you to drop this one line call into scripts and get IP addresses you can use quickly and easily. 

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