How can I get visitors IP by Node.js? - node.js

Question

I have my own VPS server and I have script in Node.js which display the visitor's IP but always when I visit website I get in console local IP address (127.0.0.1). I use Nginx.
Any idea?
Node.js script:
#!/usr/bin/env nodejs
const http = require('http');
const host = '127.0.0.1';
const port = 8080;
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
res.statusCode = 200;
res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
var ip = (req.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || '').split(',').pop().trim() ||
req.connection.remoteAddress || req.socket.remoteAddress || req.connection.socket.remoteAddress;
console.log(`IP = ${ip}`);
});
server.listen(port, host);
Nginx proxy/headers configuration:
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
root /var/www/html;
index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
server_name _;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}

Answer 1

You need to rig your nginx reverse proxy to pass along the requester's IP address. Adding these two settings to nginx.conf does the trick.
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
Put these lines in your location{...} stanza of nginx.conf along with your proxy-pass and the rest.
With these changes, nginx inserts two http headers into each request: X-Forwarded-For and X-Real-IP. (There's a new standard Forwarded: header, but nginx doesn't handle it easily as of mid-2020.)
Then, use app.set() to add proxy server support to your nodejs program to interpret those headers. Put this line in your www or http-server.js Javascript program shortly after your const app = express() line.
app.set( 'trust proxy', 'loopback' )
Express will then muck around with the X-Forwarded-For header for you and put the appropriate IP address in req.ip.
I've linked to some documentation. You would be wise to read it.