by Karl Plesz on October 20th, 2006
If someone has your IP address and your PC is vulnerable (not patched, not configured correctly, not protected with security software, not behind a firewall) they simply need to browse your files and look for personal information about you. If every possible avenue of intrusion is taken care of, you are 80% protected. Why only 80%? Because you can have all the techical gizmos in the world, it only takes one human mistake (like opening a trojan attachement in an email) to unleash the hounds.
It's like asking, "If someone knows where I live can they discover my name?" Are your doors and windows locked? Yes? Good. Is there any personal information in your garbage can on the curb? Yes? Well..... so much for the locks.....
by BadMagic-2600 on January 1st, 2008
If
1) you're using your own account you've got with your ISP;
2a) you've given your ISP your real name and address;
and/or
2b) you dial in from your home phone;
3) haven't spoofed your IP address;
4) the law enforcement agency has a legal reason for
wanting the information from your ISP;
it's a simple matter. It doesn't matter if you've got a static IP address or a dynamically assigned one. Your ISP keeps a detailed log of who's connected when, and what IP address they had at the time. It's just a small, quick search in the database.
I have done this as a job. One of the more notable cases I had was where a kook was threatening our Department's minister. We got him! Turned out to be some harmless young fool.
Mind you, the average Joe Bloggs on the street can't (legally) obtain this information. If someone works in law enforcement and they have a legal reason to obtain the information, the ISP MUST comply.
If you're going through an HTTP proxy in some distant, hardly even heard of country (like outer Mongolia or Woop Woop) who is unlikely to comply with handing over their records (assuming they keep any), it becomes harder, but still not impossible. Nothing's impossible in the land of internetworking.
Another difficult situation is where the person you're trying to track down uses different Internet cafés, public libraries etc. to do their dirty work from.
by BAM@Cyberscrewed.tk on October 17th, 2006
Yes it is possible but EXTREMELY unlikely. Im talking high level government and hours of data harvesting. Someone would have to have plenty of resources and time to swim back up into your personal data. I wouldn't worry about it....unless you're Osama Bin Laden.
EDIt----- i forgot to add this, there are programs that you can download for free to alter your ip, mine currently says im in taiwan, i think. Look for one on nonags.com, they have a variety.
by Perryman on October 18th, 2006
I heard two years ago that the NSA and the FBI were looking into this.
If you have a fixed IP address, then they could certainly locate the network that you are on and contact the network administrator for a diagram of the layout of the network that could reveal your actual ohysical location.
If you are running DHCP, and have a temporary adsress assinged every time that you conect to the network, then this would make it more challanging for them. Remember too that every computer NIC card has a fixed MAC address that will identify the computer that you are on and that this address can be discovered over your network.
by Lorenzo on December 20th, 2008
Look at the guy who so called hacked Sarah Palins yahoo account. It took just a few days to track him down and he tried to hide is tracks using several
websites to mask your IP. The average person does
not have the resources or power to really find someone, but a real tech guy, maybe. The goverment, yes if they want you bad enough. Now this happens
to yahoo accounts allot, so I don't see why they
went after him, just because of her, that is wrong.
If they track him because of her, then they should
do it for everyone..
It is almost impossible to hide your tracks today, you must work alone, do your homework and be completely careful about everything, buy computers with cash, be competely mobile, etc.. Allot of prep work needed.
by Nik_Of_Time on April 21st, 2008
ONLY International Law Enforcement Agencies can get your exact location from your I.P. Address and they get it only if they can prove that the I.P. Address whose information they want was involved in illeagal activities. They can't just get information if they want it unless the Internet Service Provider is conviced that the I.P. address they're requesting has, in fact, been involved in illeagal activities.
However, you can get a NEARLY exact location of the user whose I.P. address is known by performing a reverse DNS Lookup or Traceroute. The location provided by this is almost always off the mark by a couple of miles but they will NEVER get all of your exact details by these methods.
by nowxhining on February 9th, 2007
my ip with juno.com ISP says that I am in or around Fransisco, so I don't know as I am not near that location... my ip tho is dynamic and is a level 3 communications one...
by Petals on December 20th, 2008
Are you doing something naughty from there?
by clivehansen on January 14th, 2008
Yes they can. However, it is very costly and time consuming. They must first find the ip address (easy), and perform a whois search (usually gets the country and maybe the city) or they go to the isp and find who it is registered to. If you don't want them doing this, use tor of some other proxy.
by praneet on December 21st, 2007
you see ip address is your identity on the internet or the untrusted network and there is lot of chances that one can get to know lot abot you through it for example they can use a whois query to get to know you location for example in which country you are living,what is your ISP's name and basically if they will be able to hack into your ISP and get to their database forget about about they discovering your street address they can locate your house.
i personally recommend to use a good firewall and any other spyware detector and if so use a antivirus.
by crabmed on October 3rd, 2007
Yes they can..just by browsing the google earth..Ü
by Ruger Rock on June 29th, 2007
If you have a cable modem or router the Ip address changes everytime you power reset that device. So IP addresses can be constantly changing? The only real identifier back to your individual PC is through the MAC address which resides on your NIC(network interface card)card. So unless you change nic cards on a regular basis your mac address will stay the same. But then you have to ask yourself, why would anyone want to come and get you??
by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on June 15th, 2007
To get your street address from your IP, they need to have a reason to issue a warrant. The average "joe" cannot have a warrant issued.
The average "joe" cannot. He CAN get the street address for your IP provider itself. However, the IP provider is not going to give your street address out without a warrant.
This is usually not going to be done unless you are involved in child abuse.
Trust me... I have fought a legal battle over an internet stalker who issued death threats to myself. They could not do a thing because it did not involve a child.
BIG WARNING: if you have a website, anyone can "whois" it and get your full name, street address, and phone number. You can, and should, pay for "whois" block. It is too late for me because this was already done to me by a stalker. Please protect yourself. "Whois" block is $10 a year.
by leetmeat on June 15th, 2007
Assuming you mean an average user with a dynamic IP from cable or DSL, directly, no. There is no magic way to find someone by their IP address. You can do a trace route and it will lead back to the DHCP server that gave them said address which may/may not be in their general vicinity. But to get any further data then that you have to ask the ISP about it. The ISP keeps logs of which users (MAC address of modem for cable, Authentication info for DSL) have what IP address assigned to them. So if the authorities had traced like CP(child porn) or some other illegal content back to an IP address, they have to ask the ISP who it had been leased to during said time period.
Although, if you get a direct connection to someone on certain networks (mostly only schools, but some cable companies still do it) you can run an NETSTAT -A and find the persons unresolved DNS info, sometimes in that some information about them is encoded such as usernames or email.
by Jeremie613 on May 27th, 2007
In short: No. With only your IP address, someone can do very little. They can run a whois on it and find out what city it's registered to (and if you have a large host, this could be miles away from where you live), but that's about it.
In long: Yes. If your government or someone with a LOT of connections has a reason to find out who you are, they can, but only if they have your IP address, the exact date (or dates) that you logged in, and the general time that you logged in, they can find out who you are, but even then there are huge logistical problems. For one, if your ISP assigns multiple people to the same IP address, your pursuer could end up getting a 20-page list, leaving them with more questions than answers. Another issue might be that your ISP may not maintain their logs beyond a certain cutoff point, meaning those investigating you will have to wait until you log in again to determine who you are.
Essentially, the answer to your question is, "Maybe." It depends on numerous factors which are difficult to control and keep track of, which is why the government rarely decides to investigate in this fashion. There are other methods, as have been mentioned before. If someone decides they want to hack into your computer and see if you've got your address on file, it's only a matter of time, even if you've got a firewall.
by Jasper on May 19th, 2007
It is worth checking the data entered in the RIPE database as if you have a static IP your details may be registered against your block by your ISP.
www.ripe.net
by Anonymous on May 10th, 2007
My son went missing in 2004, I know he is somewhere in eastern country, and I have his IP address, i need to find out his street address, please email:ranikaur9@hotmail.com
by Rasher of Bacon on November 28th, 2009
yes isp's sell your info for extra bucks inside illegal employee activity is reportedly on the rise
by KenTheFurry on December 5th, 2009
If it is just a normal script kiddy they can only get your general location...
If it is a more advance hacker they can goto the hub your computer connects too that connects you to the inrternet and try to hack their records.
by Anonymous on March 20th, 2007
It is entirely possible. From the IP address you can determine the latitude and longitude of the persons connection (really only valid if they have a static IP). I'll leave the how of that to you, but it's a very simple process. *cough ip-adress.com cough* And it doesn't just show the ISP location either.
From there, google maps will show you a satellite image of the location, and a quick phone book search for the persons name in that location will turn up their physical address.
Done and done.
by Eager4Answers on October 1st, 2009
Basically your ip address is like your social once your pc security is compromised then they have access to what ever they want. So just make sure you don't open up any suspicous emails or downloads from unsecure websites because it only takes one time for them to get you.
by Anonymous on September 12th, 2009
Yes they can get the local area you are in also they might be able to track what sites you been on then google your user name find out where it is then look for information you have put online to find out where you are
by Sunny Khetarpal on June 28th, 2008
not exactly your address coz 80% home users having dynamic ip's
by Speaking The Truth on July 23rd, 2008
It's very unlikely.
by Chrisssy poo on October 11th, 2008
No they cannot. your ip will only contain your ISP's street address. Unless they can hack your ISP get your personal info.
by Anonymous on December 27th, 2008
Sorry to refute some other comments here, but YES - there are websites that will allow you to trace an IP address and give you geographical coordinates, that if you do a bit more research, will be able to find a person's general location. The actual physical address will not be available, but if someone has the will/time and is a good sleuth, they most likely could find it out.
by Anonymous on May 27th, 2008
Maybe the police can do it if you use the computer to break the laws of the country where you live. They can track the computer, not your home, since you can use the computer from school or work.
by tlr240 on January 24th, 2008
Yes - MCAFEE SNIFFER
by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on March 20th, 2007
Yes.
For those with static IDs, it's a lot easier as they don't have to cross-check the logs to see what time a particular physical address had a particular IP.
by oosagib on January 15th, 2008
ur not a vip or crimer so its doesn't matter what somebody doing with ur ip
by Brian on January 21st, 2008
I haven't read every answer here so I don't know whether anyone has suggested this yet but try Googling your IP address and see what results you get.
by Style4wifi on January 1st, 2009
Yes
by Not perfect on January 1st, 2009
Yes, First IP address then ISP. Where do I learn it? I learned it from networking at college but I quit.
by Ghoul on April 23rd, 2009
Fixed IP can know about your location
by Master Selwood on June 3rd, 2009
Yes. They can discover your Street Address but you need to be a good and i mean very good Computer Hacker. If they are not a Computer Hacker, the most they will most probably be able to do is just tell if your computer is Active or not. If you are behind a router all you need to do is turn it off and then back on, because most ISP's and routers give you a different IP.
I hope this answers your question, but if you need anymore help you can email me.
selwood1992@yahoo.com
by hearts on June 7th, 2009
Yes they could see it all.
by Jane G on June 20th, 2009
They can, but it is difficult. The IP address you use gets given to you by your ISP, who in turn has your address. Laws vary per country, so getting information from an ISP varies, but typically you have to be a law enforcement agency.
by Colonel Cool on April 20th, 2009
no, they can only guess your county or city, most likely because tracing ip tells you who the internet service provider is from, but not your adrress.
by Master Selwood on April 8th, 2009
As far as i know, NO. They can only see what city you are in like london or austrailia etc. I am a computer expert and i only know that you can do this with an Ip Address. If you have your own Internet your Ip Address should change every time you turn off the router or your computer ETC. Your ISP (internet service provider) changes your Ip so it doesn't really matter if they do have your Ip Address. Just phone your ISP and ask them to change it, simple.
Im sure if they have your Ip Address you'll be fine, but you can email me if you need anymore help.
selwood.ryan1992@yahoo.com
by Ec-nal Licensed Bootie Inspector on January 1st, 2009
Yeah but it helps if you work for the FBI yo...
by pleshvarnis on January 23rd, 2009
Once it was such situation.. I've been instaling and registering truck & cargo program. i had to make a last call to register this program, they asked me to prvide where the company is registrered phone and so on. I was suprized when i said my comp. is registered on XXXXX 25a street and they said but you now are at YYYYYY 36 street. How it posible?I was calling even in other country to register and they saw everything. I think that their program has such abilities to track exact computer location. So its mean such programs exist..
by FairLady on February 8th, 2009
I think only if this person is listed in the phone book.
by miashley on February 4th, 2010
Unless they are very skillful hackers, else they could only discover your Country, Region, City, Latitude, Longitude, ZIPCode, Timezone, ISP, Domain, Netspeed, AreaCode, Weather Station of your IP address (you can test out the demo from http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx ). They wouldn't know your exact location such as home address. What they could get is just the location of your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Btw, your ISP will only disclose personal information to others with court orders.
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Comments
To anyone who down-rated this answer, if you didn't find it helpful, you should comment on why.
by Karl Plesz on February 3rd, 2007
I hate when cowards do that. +4
by msummers10 on April 3rd, 2007
Bless you.
by Karl Plesz on December 31st, 2007
I uprated it. I think it's good. :)
by FairLady on February 8th, 2009