Info from IP address

I am wondering what info someone can obtain about an individual if they know your IP address. I surfed around looking for info and it appears that they can tell your IP and your geographic location (how specific, who knows?). I'm assuming that institutional IPs are easy to trace, but someone within that institutuon?

The reason I ask is this. And it may be some kind of spoof or gag, but I thought I'd check. I was on a forum and there was some heated debate between two posters, it got nasty, you can imagine how it goes ... anyway, one poster said he had traced from his IP address his personal info and then posted the other chaps address openly on the forum. Normally, I would just have taken it as some silly wind up, but the reaction from the second chap made me think there was some credibility about the info that had been posted. Neither were forum moderators, so no priviledged access to posters info.

Was this a silly wind up game or is this possible (by perhaps piecing other info from other postings the chap had made - people can still let on an awful lot one way and another I think - to narrow things down? ).

When I was with AAISP, this site was able to show my address fairly accurately. That is not the case any more, but I suspect it is just because I have not shared my address with a company selling my details along with my IP.

Your IP address CAN identify you to within a few centimetres. Google collected this information as they monitored wireless APs during their Google photographing,

Well, there can't be much info out they about me.

I've got a static IP & domain name, which should make easy to find, but that site puts me 100 miles from my true location, which suits me fine.

It gave a most bizarre location for my IP address, so that's good.

Can you tell me if this is used for a particular reason and who has access to that info?

In reply to a post by 12eason:

When I was with AAISP, this site was able to show my address fairly accurately. That is not the case any more, but I suspect it is just because I have not shared my address with a company selling my details along with my IP.

Rofl. "Organisation:Swindon Town FC". Yup, that's right. That well known multi-national computer security corporation with a multi-billion dollar turnover. I'm over fifty miles from Swindon. Gawd only knows where it gets that from. Speedtest.net is better - at least it identifies us as a WAN even if it does think we're an ISP and based in London.

Edited by Andrue (Mon 14-Nov-11 15:32:05)

In reply to a post by Fens:

It gave a most bizarre location for my IP address, so that's good.

I can think of various possible strategies to use but it's anyone's guess which would work. If the individual has their own domain then you might be able to get the address from the registrar but private individuals can choose not to show that.

It's going to be very hit and miss and for the average punter sitting at home on their laptop I'd say more miss than hit.

I suspect that your IP block my have previously been allocated to said organisation. and the WHOIS hasn't been updated / removed. I have several like that from different providers around teh world.

If you give Google your mobile no (and they prompt pretty hard for it if you use Gmail) they will locate you via your phone and use this to pump location-specific adverts at you. It seems their photocars also picked up some info from wi-fi as another poster mentions. My IP resolves to Edinburgh, some 150 miles away.

As usual, pse note I'm no techie. But I did opt out from all Google info, I did not cross-register with Youtube etc as one must do nowadays, and after opting out the 'localised' ads stopped. So I no longer get invited to meet gorgeous girls in my own town. Mind you, Google doesn't have my birthday either, or they would know that I'm past interest in such matters

One good aspect of the site is that it can be used to check your IP address against various "Blacklists".

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I no longer get invited to meet gorgeous girls in my own town. Mind you, Google doesn't have my birthday either, or they would know that I'm past interest in such matters

Give them your age and you will get the "Grab-a-granny" ads ...

Certainly not the case for me either, but close, only 190 miles out.

It's the granny grabbing ME that I'm worried about

I'm in Coventry apparently. 300 miles out. Handy gizmo that.

Your IP addy is not linked to your wireless AP's MAC & SSID and even if it were it would have not been visible to Google's snoop cars.

Furthermore, Google spied so long ago that you could well have since changed your wireless router, as I have.

Puts me in Chard, Somerset; way out

All it can do is locate where the ISP last registered the IP block/pool.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

When I was with AAISP, this site was able to show my address fairly accurately....

Surely it's just pointing to your PoP?

Edited by Deadbeat (Tue 15-Nov-11 10:27:13)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Your IP addy is not linked to your wireless AP's MAC & SSID and even if it were it would have not been visible to Google's snoop cars.

Furthermore, Google spied so long ago that you could well have since changed your wireless router, as I have.

When Google sniffing was in the news I entered my IP address into a site using the google database. It gave my address (number and post code). I changed my router's MAC to a generic one.

I was annoyed enough to try and find out how but I did not understand. If I had understood I'd be a hacker and would filch people's bank accounts.

In reference to www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/371200/google-reveals-how-to-opt-out-...:

However, people will be able to opt-out of the database by including "_nomap" on the end of their router's name. "To opt out, visit your access point�s settings and change the wireless network name (or SSID) so that it ends with _nomap," he said. "For example, if your SSID is 'Network', you�d need to change it to 'Network_nomap'."

Why should you have to opt out of having data collected by Google that they have no right to collect in the first place?

A more reasonable option would be to append "_map" to the SSID if you were prepared to have your location logged.

Yes, distasteful isn't it. However, you are broadcasting your SSID to all and sundry.

So?

So, it's not just google capturing the data, other location service providers do too. Do they allow you to opt in/out?

What does that have to do with anything?

It's unlawful, end of. IMO, any company found guilty of such activities should get a heavy fine the first time, and if they do it again a fine that comes close to putting them out of business, with a warning that the next one will be a lot bigger.

No point pussy-footing about.

What's unlawful?

Breaching the DPA.

I would imagine breaching any act would be unlawful, however Google location services clearly isn't unlawful as you need to opt-out. If it was unlawful it couldn't exist so there wouldn't be anything to opt-out of.

It's used by travellers to find out where they are, rather than to determine who residents are.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

If it was unlawful it couldn't exist

Yeah... driving over 30mph in a built-up area is unlawful so it doesn't exist.

Get real.

Get this. Get caught 3 times and get banned.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Get caught 3 times

How can you get caught 3 times for something that doesn't happen?

When I was on SKY LLU, it pointed to my home town (I'm guessing the IP pool Sky used on my exchange was all registered to the town) but now on BT Infinity it points towards Glasgow, which is probably the PoP. I am in the north west of Ireland in Lodonderry/Derry

Why is it unlawful to make a note of the location where you can receive publically broadcasted information?

When you set up a wireless network, you are electing to broadcast it's availability unless you take measures to prevent that, e.g. hiding SSID, lowering power to limit coverage area.

Should TV/Radio/Mobile coverage maps put together by third parties be illegal?

My enquiry seems to have gone off track a bit. But I was intrigued and reminded by another thread on this forum and checked my IP address location again today - some days later than the original one which provided a location of the Houses of Parliament in London. Today my IP address is very different from the previous reading and now I'm apparently located in Doncaster. I'm actually not located near either. Interesting though.

where / how are you checking your location from an IP address? Whats the web site?

There are much easier ways to find out quite a lot of info about people without using their IP to do it - the average user drops a suprising amount of publicly available information as they go around the internet - often just from a username and a bit of detective work you can find someones full details in a couple of hours.

Over on the overclockers forums in the past they've been able to find out a rather shocking amount of people, in one of the threads one guy even boasted about how secure he was online and dared anyone to find his real info... which I did in <30minutes even tho he'd done a good job of hiding his details online I found an obscure reference that I was able to link to his steam profile and from there his hometown and a clue to his last name, bit of digging later and I had him narrowed down to 1 of 2 addresses - which I didn't post publicly but he did confirm that one of them was correct in PM... if I'd been seriously trying to find him a phone call or a bit of stalking would have done the rest.

Edited by deleted (Tue 22-Nov-11 19:29:04)

In reply to a post by iand:

where / how are you checking your location from an IP address? Whats the web site?

Somebody suggested this site http://whatismyipaddress.com/ but there are others.