IP address - what personal info is given?

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

Please can anyone tell me what personal information can be found from an IP address and/or email address?

I know that when you receive what looks like a "suspicious" or spam email address you can view its "header" which shows you an IP address and a lot of what looks like gobbledygook.

Is there a way to search the "IP address" to find out who/where the email came from?

Or if you have a person's email address is there any way to find more personal information about the sender from that?

Many thx in advance.

bod1467

No. Unless you are directly connected to the internet via your own connection and the RIPE (?) database contains details that identify you and your address to that IP address, then all your IP address reveals is who your ISP is (i.e. who owns that IP address) and where (network node) your IP address connects to the internet.

Cycrow

personal information about ip address are generally only available to ISP's

You can find out who the ip is registered too but it wont tell you whos actually using it.

most ip's on personal connections are also dynamic.

InsideInsurance

As a normal user you are assigned an IP each time you connect to the internet by your ISP. That IP will be owned by them and by querying it you will only bring back their details and the approximate location of their servers.

The ISP themselves will keep a record of which IP they gave to who at any point in time but there is no way to obtain that information externally from the ISP.

My client is a USA based company and so when I am VPN'ed into their network my IP will resolve as being in the US when I am actually sat in my office in the UK.

Email addresses you can get even less from, absolutely nothing pretty much. Ok if you have John.Smith@DirectLine.com then you can guess the owner's name is John Smith and they work for Direct Line but (a) the address can be spoofed and (b) DL could give that address to anyone in the world if they desired

RumRat

John Smith at Direct line is fed up with all the Spam he's suddenly receiving..;):D