Does IP Address Reveal my Physical Location? - Comments Page 1

Note that for full anonymous Internet it's hard to avoid paying for an account, since the free services are limited. You can also get anonymizing software for your computer which passes you through a network of proxy servers. Access a dozen anonymous surfing services from this page: http://www.space.net.au/~thomas/quickbrowse.html

You may also be interested in checking out the Tor network, designed for high anonymity and security (hosted by the Electronic Freedom Foundation): http://tor.eff.org

sir,i want to ask u a seriours matter.i am in serious trouble , if someone has my ip address and he wants to detect me seriously,would he go to the ISP to find the line(telephone)which was assigned the ip address at that time and date.if they have the information ,how long they could keep that record.i was connected through dial-up process.

EDITOR'S NOTE: They could, but the ISP should not release that info without a warrant signed by a judge. At least in the US...

Switch on full header view in emails, pick up the IP address where it first hit the Internet (top of the list) and put it into something like Geobytes - presto, good proximity. Surfing is safer..

EDITOR'S NOTE: This only gives a rough estimate of geographic location, and results vary widely depending on the ISP. For example: If you're an AOL user, these tools will ALWAYS say that you're in Virginia, where AOL is located.

Being a developer, I can tell you that based on the IP Address and the provider, it is possible over 70% of the time for us to pull a latitude and longitude from an IP address, based on a host of factors. I've been writing applications that used both simple and complex Geo location based on a person's IP address since 2003. Take a look at something as commercial as IP2Location.com, which is distributed as a web service to applications. The results might surprise you.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sure, this works in some cases, but it will NEVER pinpoint an exact street location, unless you live in the same building as your ISP's local switching facility. Not likely. For some ISPs,it will get you within a few miles, others could be wrong by several orders of magnitude.

Does anybody know how long isp keeps the record of the ip address lets say for a sent email???

EDITOR'S NOTE: It could be 7 days or 70 years, depending on the ISP, and the phase of the moon. I doubt they would ever tell you.

Mr. Rankin, are you sure The Anonymizer service claim that they do not store IP addresses? I did not see any mention of this on their website.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I didn't say anything about whether or not Anonymizer stores your IP address. I did say that it HIDES your IP from the target websites.

Do you know of any case in which a judge has issued a warrant for an ip address in a civil suit, i.e. for defamation? X says something incorrect about Y on a blog, Y is angry and demands that the blog company give the ip address X's statement came from, blog company refuses, Y sues blog company...

EDITOR'S NOTE: I can't think of a specific case, but I'll bet it happens every day.

I have a laptop from work. If I bring it home and surf the web utilizing my home ISP (rather than the company's network), would they be able to trace me comings and goings? Also, does the IP belong to the individual, discreet PC, or to the ISP address servicing a particular address? For instance, a laptop using s wireless connection: is the IP of that laptop always the same, or does it change as you change from one one wireless connection to another?

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you use your laptop at home, and connect to your home ISP, the only way for your employer to see what you've done online is to peek into your history or cache when you return to work and connect to the company network. To clear your browser's tracks, see http://askbobrankin.com/clearing_browser_history.html

My computer was stolen about a week ago. Last night the guys used my iTunes account from that computer to download a bunch of stuff costing me money. I contacted iTunes who were able to give me an IP address as well as the exact time the download took place. I filed a police report for the stolen computer. Will the police be able to find the exact location with this information?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Possibly, but only if the ISP will cooperate and supply the name of their customer who was assigned to that IP at that time. However, if it was a wireless connection in a public place, then you're probably out of luck.

So, if someone told me they received "nasty" e-mails and that they had a computer tech breakout the e-mail trail and they found an ISP, does that mean "they got me"? Is a name of the person who sent the e-mail revealed or just the service provider?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Only the name of the ISP is revealed.