import ipaddress


def get_ip(request):
    """
    Retrieves the remote IP address from the request data.  If the user is
    behind a proxy, they may have a comma-separated list of IP addresses, so
    we need to account for that.  In such a case, only the first IP in the
    list will be retrieved.  Also, some hosts that use a proxy will put the
    REMOTE_ADDR into HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR.  This will handle pulling back the
    IP from the proper place.
    """

    # if neither header contain a value, just use local loopback
    ip_address = request.META.get('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR',
                                  request.META.get('REMOTE_ADDR', '127.0.0.1'))
    if ip_address:
        # make sure we have one and only one IP
        if ',' in ip_address:
            ip_address = ip_address.split(',')[0].strip()
        # check if IP address is valid
        try:
            ipaddress.ip_address(ip_address)
        except:
            ip_address = ip_address[:39]

    return ip_address