If you’ve done any custom IP work in the phpBB world, then you know that phpBB stores IP addresses in a hex format. This is simple, but you’ll definitely need to convert back to plain IP format (in octets) if you want to display that information. I am sure phpBB probably has some functions for converting between the 2, but it was easier and faster to just write my own. Here they are for your convenient use:

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function ip_to_hex($ip)
// Purpose: Takes a user's IP and converts it to the hex value needed by phpBB
// Arguements: $ip - The remote user's IP address
// Returns: $hex - The user's IP in hex
{
$pieces = explode(".", $ip);
$hex0 = dechex($pieces[0]);
$hex1 = dechex($pieces[1]);
$hex2 = dechex($pieces[2]);
$hex3 = dechex($pieces[3]);
if(strlen($hex0) < 2) $hex0 = "0".$hex0;
if(strlen($hex1) < 2) $hex1 = "0".$hex1;
if(strlen($hex2) < 2) $hex2 = "0".$hex2;
if(strlen($hex3) < 2) $hex3 = "0".$hex3;
$hex = $hex0 . $hex1 . $hex2 . $hex3;
return $hex;
}
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function hex_to_ip($hex)
// Purpose: Takes an IP in hex form and converts it to the plain IP form
// Arguements: $hex - The user's IP in hex
// Returns: $ip - The remote user's IP address
{
$pieces[0] = substr($hex, 0, 2);
$pieces[1] = substr($hex, 2, 2);
$pieces[2] = substr($hex, 4, 2);
$pieces[3] = substr($hex, 6, 2);
$ip0 = hexdec($pieces[0]);
$ip1 = hexdec($pieces[1]);
$ip2 = hexdec($pieces[2]);
$ip3 = hexdec($pieces[3]);
$ip = $ip0.".".$ip1.".".$ip2.".".$ip3;
return $ip;
}