Can People Find My Home Address Through My IP Address?
Many people on the internet ask this question, so today; I am going to answer it for once and for all.
So… Can people find out who you are through your IP Address? The simple answer is yes. But first, let’s understand what an IP Address is, the different types of IP Addresses, and then how people can find out your home address through your IP.
What Is An IP Address?
Under IPv4, an IP Address is a bunch of numbers that is in the format of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. For example: 124.136.56.164. However, since the world is running short of IP Addresses (we’ll probably run out by the end of 2011), IPv6 has been created in which IP Addresses are displayed as group of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons. For example: 2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8. For more information about IPv6, visit Wikipedia.
What are IP Addresses Used For?
IP Addresses are used to connect computers to each other. For example, your ISP will assign you either a static or dynamic IP Address which you will use to connect your computer or home network to the internet. If your home network has more than one computer in it, your ISP will not assign each of your computers an IP Address. Your router will assign each computer in your network a LAN IP. This IP Address is a little different as it will usually start with a 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x.
Static IP? Dynamic IP? What’s the Difference?
Basically a Static IP Address never changes, whereas a Dynamic IP Address does change. Businesses usually require a static IP Address so they can host servers such as web servers, so when you visit a domain name, the DNS server (Domain Name Server) finds out what the IP Address is and directs you to that server. Imagine if you had a dynamic IP Address that always changes, you wouldn’t be able to locate that server or website.
Most residential customers will be assigned dynamic IP Addresses by their ISP. The reason being is that they don’t need to run servers and it’s easier to manage.
What’s better – Dynamic or Static?
It’s really depends on what you require as each have their pro’s and con’s. For example, if you want to host a web server, a static IP Address will be better suited, but a dynamic IP will be better if you constantly get blocked by a firewall as you can reset your modem and get a new IP Address and re-access the site. But you can’t do that with a static IP Address as your IP Address remains the same.
So can people find out my home address through my IP Address?
If someone wants to find out where you live, first, they will need to know your IP Address and the date and time when you accessed something (it’s easy to get, read below). Every time you visit a website, the website would probably record your IP Address. That being said, to identify you from the other 10000 visitors can be a bit tricky, so if you log into an account, they will most probably have your username or address recorded so they can associate your account details to your IP Address.
But by someone just having your IP Address, it is possible to track down who you are from your IP Address, but for privacy issues, not many people can do it. If someone wants to find your address, they will need a court order or a warrant to access the information from your ISP. With this, your the ISP can lookup who used what particularly ISP at a given time and date. They will then look up your billing and account details to find out what address you have.
Also, each ISP and countries are assigned with a particular IP range, thus you can use services like Trasir to find out who your ISP is and what country and region you are from.
So that is how people can find your address from your IP Address. Please keep in mind, to find legally get your personal details from your IP Address, they will need to go through some form of court order to receive permission to get these details.
Please be aware, that there maybe people who work with these agencies (ISP, Police etc) that may be able to attain these details through inside information.
So Where Do I Find My IP Address? What is my IP?
It is very easy to find your IP Address, and if I go to a services like CanYouSeeMe.org it will get my IP Address for me and display it. When you visit it on another computer on another network, it will show you your IP Address you are using to connect to the internet. Other services like You Get Signal will show a geophysical map of your location in which your IP Address is assigned, which can be used as an extremely useful tool to track IP Addresses and to trace IP locations.
IP Addresses Can Be Disguised
It is important to note, that IP addresses can be spoofed. Someone in one country, can mask their IP address to show that they are in another country. When someone does this, it makes it much more difficult to track where that person is actually located. I suggest you read “How To Use a Fake IP Address & Mask Yourself Online” and “6 Tips On How To Unblock A Web Page From Behind A Firewall“.
Hello. if someone wanted to trace an IP address and wasn’t a goverment body, can they do it if they have an email address with yahoo?
Sometimes when you send an email, the IP address of the computer sending the email is sent along in the email’s header data. Therefore, if sent with Yahoo, the IP address can be obtained and searched for to find who is using it.
hello! quick question if you do not mind answering, how does a website such as “http://www.ipgp.net//url” or “tracemyip.org” able to give out the exact location of an ip address? these websites claim they do but from what i gathered from this article they are unable to? thanks in advance and thanks for taking the time out to write this.
There are a lot of factors that will determine whether or not they can find your address. Usually they just find the address of who owns the IP address, along with a number of other factors. Usually they can’t but sometimes they can.
Hi Jack. Can someone find out who I am through my IP address? I asked this guy a couple of questions on ask.fm as anonymous from my phone and now he is (creepily) determined on knowing who I am. Could he actually do that? if so, how can I prevent it? pleas help :/
Yes, if he takes legal proceedings. But general public, it’s unlikely.
hi jack, just wondering if I can find out who tried to hack my email address if google has given me their ip address?
I recommend searching for the IP address using the services I listed in this article.
HI, i keep getting signed up to emails of porn and weight loss and i think i know who is doing it. If the police investigate it can they track the person down. Can people hide an IP address
Hello Vikki, that’s no good at all. The police might not have the resources available to investigate it for you. You can try and ask them, but it’s unlikely especially if you feel unsafe. Who is your email address provider? If it is Gmail, make sure you mark it all as spam, hopefully, it won’t flood your inbox as much.
hi i recently done a survey and im wondering if i will be tracked by them
can they access my address and any info like that
and do can all surveys find out where you live using your ip address
Depends on the platform of the server, and whether you gave your address within a question.
But it is possible with survey systems to get an IP address, but finding out your home address would be unlikely.
Hi,
My name is Jo and I need your help!
I need to know if you can actually track who has messaged you with a newly created account.
This random person sent me a message on Facebook sending me a photo naked of myself just now on friday . earlier in december a random also sent me a random message something to do with my husband.
both accounts have blocked me.
is there a way on how to find the computer where these accounts were created ? to track the person down?
I don’t see how this could be done, but I thought Id ask. or if you know someone you know
Id appreciate it,
Jo
Hello Jo,
That doesn’t sound good at all. Do you at least of the Facebook ID of the account that send you the pictures?
The best thing to do is think, who had access to those photo’s, and how they actually got them. That’s the path I would take to find who was messaging you.
I have never actually taken photos like that, not even just to see. never. its a fake but it looks so real its freaky. whats the Facebook ID.
the name of one of the accounts is Zoe Wenston
and the other Brent Cummings but that was is deleted i think
how can u find out who it was? is it even possible?
hello friend please help a unkown person is abuseing me on facebook……and i want to trace him down. how can i get ip address of that person please help me ….can police trace him down…by ip address…..
Police can only track them down if they have a warrant, because they need one to get information from the ISP who owns the IP address.
Looking at the IP address is there anyway to tell what State the IP is located in ?
Only the owner of the IP, not necessarily of the user. But go to whois.sc/ and it should tell you.
Will my ip change if I change my monitor?
There is no correlation between changing your IP address and your monitor.
Hi jack, i am using facebook. and for example i send message to someone, if he/she is hacker, can that person find my IP adress, and mainly my home adress in which i am using internet??
Facebook does not provide people’s IP addresses, unless there is a court order.
The only time Facebook shares an IP address is when you log in (or someone unsuccessfully logs in) to your account. Facebook will then send the IP address of the computer training to access your account.
Hi jack! I’m wondering a thing, i did just wanted to try edit on wikipedia. So i moved to a random “subject” and puted 1 letter then after that removed it again, and now my ip is showed on the history, I’m kind of scared right now, can someone do something bad? Can i make that Wikipedia is removing my ip adress from that page? Or should i dont be worried? Would like a fast reply 🙂
I wouldn’t worry about it. Chances are that you are on a dynamic IP address so it will change when you restart your modem.
Wikipedia is like this to prevent spam and fake information on it’s pages.
Wikipedia won’t remove the IP address.
Hi Jack, I just found this post and hope you can help me out…so a couple of months ago I created several email accounts and did surveys for the company I work for to get the scores up for the company (obviously against company policy) and now they are investigating…some of the surveys were taken at work and some at my house….what are the odds of them finding out it was me?….thank you in advance.
Hello Esther,
That depends on your companies IT department. If you did it at work, they will likely be able to track your internet history, or retrieve the IP address of your home computer, and match it with another record (such as an email, VPN connection etc).
So it’s possible.
Hey, is it possible to find the residents of a house with only an IO? ie 127.0.0.1 has Mary Smith, Elise Web, etc?
Hello John, the IP address of 127.0.0.1 is localhost. This means, it’s the computer itself.
So with that IP address, it’s impossible to track who it is.
I would check your information, you might have grabbed the wrong address.
hi jack,
a hacker log in my Facebook account and i just get a massage from Facebook. i quikly log in his account and change his account password then hacker logged out my account.
Some details of hacker I get from Facebook-
time – 8:48 pm ,
date-8 February 2015,
Location- near mumbai, INDIA,
Browser-chorme browser on Window,
IP Address- 27.5.69.31
I want to more details about hacker.
how to get more details ?
FB doesn’t provide any more information. Just secure your account and you should be fine.
Hi Jack, i have been reading throught the questions people have been asking, an i havent read one the same, as what im going to ask. Ive had 1 person on facebook create two different accounts, then add me as a friend, so they could send me messages, this person goal was to break me an my partner up, with lies. any who, hopefully it is finished with now. But is there anyway to trace those accounts back to the actual person. Im 100% sure it was the same person as the two different accounts maintained the same story.. both of the profiles have been deleted, but i still have the messages. Thanks
By the sounds of it, it sounds like the same person. But I wouldn’t be able to tell for sure. Good luck with it.
Hi so I sent a complaint mail with a newly created acc and the receiver wants to find out the person that sent it. I’ve logged into portals that have my address and info. can they verify the IP address of the email sender to that of learning portal to find out who it is?
Hello Esther,
Depending on how you sent your email, it could contain your IP address, therefore, they could map it to the portal to see if it is the same person.
Hello Jack,
If I change my IP address will people searching my old IP address, without contacting my isp, still be able to triangulate a round about Longitude and Lattitude? Thanks for your help
No. They’ll need to contact the ISP and provide the time you held that particular IP address, and then they will look at your account details.
Hello:
I have a question, I hacker my uncle’s facebook to send to my cousin and aunt all the conversations he do with others women. My uncle cheat my aunt, so I send what he do to my cousins and aunt using my uncle’s facebook. Know my uncle and his sons send me a message that said tha they would know my IP, to know who are I’m and will burn my house and hit me.
I feel nervious, ¿they can do that? ¿can they find my IP adress, and mainly my home adress in which i am using internet?
Hello Finano,
If they have login notifications active, then he will be notified that you accessed his Facebook account, and yes, this provides an IP address. Unless he takes it to Law enforcement, he will unlikely be able to find your address. But it also says the approximate location. So if you moved areas, he’ll likely know what area you now live in, which he could find other sources to find your address.
If someone were to report kik messages or a fake Twitter account to the police, how can the police track them?
I work on a suicide hotline that aslo allows for chat. When we need to find someone by there IP address, sometimes the ISP says the IP can not be traced. They must know where/who to bill for the service so why cant the trace it? I know people can spoof their IP…I undersatnd that. But one explanation from the ISP is something about a NAT which I only understand a little of. Can you explain? (BTW, we have the police call them under an admin. subpeona for the exigent circumsatnces)
NAT is called Network Address Translation. It basically hides a group of local IP addresses behind a single IP address. E.g, your ISP will give you one public IP address, but all your home computers have a local IP address which your router NAT’s it. Because there is a shortage of IPv4 addresses, some ISP’s are giving multiple customers one single IP address.
You are correct, the ISP records which customer had the IP address at that particular time, so they can find out the customer. But they don’t unless there is a warrant by police.
(corrected for spelling from previous entry)
I work on a suicide hotline that aslo allows for chat. When we need to find someone by their IP address, sometimes the ISP says the IP can not be traced. They must know where/who to bill for the service so why cant they trace it? I know people can spoof/hide their IP…I undersatnd that. But one explanation from the ISP is something about a NAT which I only understand a little of. Can you explain? (BTW, we have the police call them under an admin. subpeona for the exigent circumsatnces)
on March 30, 2015 Reply
This is very poorly written and full of misinformation. You’re luring people in to a false sense of security, anybody with a brain can find out where you live with nothing but an IP address, without any court orders or warrants.
As of writing this article, this was the basis in Australia. Now with the meta data laws being passed through parliament, government agencies, will soon be able to access 2 years of information, including your IP address and what you looked at. Recently nearly 5000 Australians may soon get legal letters in their mailbox for sharing Dallas Buyers Club online.
nice website . They’ll need to contact the ISP and provide the time you held that particular IP address, and then they will look at your account details