
But there’s an additional tidbit of information.ġ13. is the domain name associated to this IP address. You can see this gives much of the same information that we’ve seen above, namely the ISP who owns that IP address. I’ll use a tool from a third-party vendor this time,. As its name implies, reverse DNS does the opposite: given an IP address, it finds the domain name that has been assigned as the primary 1 identifier. In some cases, reverse DNS can be instructive.ĭNS ( Domain Name System) maps a domain name, like “”, to an IP address. ARIN covers IP addresses assigned in North America there are other services for the rest of the planet. Note that it’s possible the information presented may point you to a different whois server. With a court order, law enforcement could then approach the ISP for more detailed information, including who the IP address was assigned to at the time in question.

In this example, the block is owned by Verizon Wireless, and includes all IP addresses from 72.96.0.0 through 72.127.255.255.

This is typical of what you’ll get: information that identifies the ISP who owns the “block” of IP addresses containing the IP address you asked about. I’ll use 72.104.186.113 (an IP address that I know to be assigned) as my example. In the upper right corner’s Search box, (Screenshot: )Įnter the IP address you’re interested in and press Return. “Whois” is a service that basically answers the question “who is X” where X is an IP address, a domain name, or, potentially, several other things.ĪRIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, is a fine place to start. Let’s look at what you can determine from an IP address on your own, and a few tools that will help you determine who that ISP is. Not only can an IP address change or be shared among many computers (and hence people), but the information you’re seeking is private and protected by the ISP, who really “owns” the IP address.

The name, location, phone number, email address, or other specific information is not available if all you have is an IP address. It’s important to realize that y ou will not, on your own, be able to get the information you want. They believe they have the IP address of the person responsible, and they want to track the person down. Most commonly, it’s from someone being harassed online.

I’ve received this question repeatedly, and for various reasons. To go beyond that point, you need the assistance of the ISP owning the IP address, and to get that, you likely need law enforcement or the courts to get them to release otherwise private information. There are services, including whois, reverse DNS, Geo-IP, and IP-sharing lookups, that can provide some information about an IP address. It’s not possible to find out who is using a specific IP address without the aid of law enforcement.
