Does IP Address Reveal my Physical Location?

I had someone recently get my IP address since I posted on their message board and they posted it in public. Now lots of people have it. However, the IP they have is not my ISP's IP but instead my router's IP address. Is there anything I can do to change the IP address of my router? I have dynamic IP addresses from my ISP (roadrunner) and when I asked them they assured me they would not tell anyone who I am based on my IP ( I wonder if they even can if the person gives them the IP that is really for my router). So what can I do here to remain anonymous? Thanks very much!

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Internet is designed so that every site you connect with will see your IP address. It's not meant to be private, and you shouldn't be concerned if someone knows it. Knowing your IP address doesn't give anyone the power to hack into your computer, nor does it reveal who you are. BTW, if you have dynamic IP addresses from your ISP, then the address assigned to your router isn't really "yours". What you describe is the situation for 99% of all broadband users. Nothing to worry about here...

OK so may I make sure I have a complete understanding of this. The IP address which is associated with my router is not only mine but quite possibly many other people in my area? In other words, the IP I have might be the same as other people who use the same brand of router and have the same ISP as me? Many thanks! (BTW my fears are not for hacking but for someone to find out my name, home address, etc.. or for them to be able to say "since his IP is XXXXXXX, then this post HAS to be from his computer)

Hello,

I used my laptop to send a complaint through yahoo about my work at a local city goverment. They are now UPSET.

They are trying to find out who sent it. Can they trace me. Can they also trace me back to the same IP if I log in at my outlook mail from same laptop? Will yahoo or my dsl give me up? It was just a complaint one my manager but they are saying it was slander.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yahoo and your ISP will not give up that info without a court order. However, if you sent an email through Yahoo, the recipient can look in the "full headers" to see the sender's IP address. If you send other emails from that same IP address (regardless of the email program used), the recipient COULD assume that you sent the other one. With dialup, you typically get a different IP address every time you logon. Not sure if that's the case with DSL.

If someone sent you an message on facebook, can you get an IP address from that? If so what exactly can they find out? Just your geographic location or can they get your physical address and name? Please respond I need this information asap.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You can't see the IP address of a person who sends you a Facebook message, and they can't see yours if you reply.

hello, I am in Srilanka
my office email account has been hacked by a person in united kingdom (IP says that). can i take actions toward him from sri lanka.

I posted a comment on a couple of blogs. I wasn't registered to post, the site lets anyone make comments. My comments were not criminal in nature or anything, but I now regret doing it. I guess I'm paranoid. Could someone find my identity by contacting the blogs and getting the IP address that is attached to a comment? Thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Even if they did so, the IP address does not identify you, or your location, unless law enforcement compels your ISP to divulge that info.

Please I need your help to understand very serious issue. I do not have an access to my computer at work for the last 2,5 months, the same I do not have an access to my work emails. What happened is that few days ago, I have received an email which was sent from my work account into my private email account (hotmail) at about 9pm, although I do not have an access to it. Only myself know the password and I bealive that the administrator can also access my work emails if needed. The most interesting thing is that the email which I received was sent by me from my hotmail account from my personal laptop on 16th of June from the UK. I travelled back to Oman on 17th of June and started to work on 19thof June. I did access my hotmail emails in general on work computer but did not sent that email from work computer at that time. Now, when I started work, company asked me if I can use my privet laptop for few days before they give me computer (desktop). I agreed and they set up Microsoft Outlook with my work email account and I also been given access to the server. After a week or so, I got desktop and all access from my private laptop was cancelled. I have not received any work emails in Outlook on my private laptop from 15th December 2009 until last few days. I started to wander how this is possible to receive email from my work account if I do not have an access to it. I checked my outlook on my privet laptop and Outlook with work account is now activated and what is more, that email is in ?sent? box which means that it was sent from my privet laptop. How??? Also back in August, I have been given the company laptop and the administrator copied all information from my desktop to company laptop and told me that I should use only laptop from now on, because emails which I open on desktop will not be shown on laptop. And this is correct. Please give me some options how these things happened. Is it possible to check from which computer that email was sent and also how they got an email which was sent from private laptop and from different country.

EDITOR'S NOTE: My head hurts after reading that, but my best guess is that the message was somehow stuck in an outbox, and something triggered its eventual sending.

Today I got a call from a dispute resolution center they said that last year I got a payday loan and never paid it back so they were filing a case against me and if I lose I'll go jail. They said they traced the email account I used to do the loan with through my I P address. My email is with AOL. I think I'm being scammed????

Someon has sent me an e-mail on behalf of my boss(he/she used his work e-mail) Ufortunately i erased the e-mail from my in-box and I am unable to see the FULL HEADER. Is there any other way to find out which IP has sent it? e.g Can a server administrator find out which IP accessed the web mail?

Hi,
I have a facebook with my real name and info on it. I created a fake fb account and messed with one of my friends on it. I sent messanges and posted comments on her page. a guy I do not not sent me a friend request and a message on my fake account.I accepted it and then deleted him.then I get on my real account and the same guy sent me a message and friend request. The message said that I'd better stop playing with peoples minds and how he will prove that I am the one doing it. so my question is can this guy figure out that I was using two fb accounts because i responded to his friend request and message by comparing the IP addresses? How can he prove that I was the one doing it? When no one else knew about my having two fb accounts.

Hey thanks for this useful thoughts.
but I've a little question here
Facebook is blocked in my country,so I'm using a different IP addresses (from foreign countries)to login .so my question is can my government know what I am doing exactly there,or my real identity?

Thanks for the useful info=) I have another question. Someone sent me horrible messages in Facebook and I was determined to find out who it was, but she either she blocked me or deactivated her account. So my question would be, is there any way that I can trace her IP address if she blocked me or deactivated her account? My brother said that his friend might have a CD that he can install on my computer that can trace IP address? Is it true, are there really CDs that you can install as tracers? If so, how accurate are they? Thank you!

EDITOR'S NOTE: You don't need a CD to trace IP addresses. There are plenty of websites that can give you an approximate geo-location for an IP address. But without a court order, it will NOT personally identify the user.

Hi,

I am doing a project for academic purpose, which locates the visitors of a website and clusters them in a map.

Above, you have mentioned that all the ISP's information is stored in "WHOIS database".

How can I access that database through my program. Can I use YQL? Is there any other API's avaiable?
or Can you please provide some links which I can go through?

Thanks you in advance!

with all the mobile IP addys its hard to track. Also using a proxy server will be good. As long as it not in your country.

This website can give you the location of an IP Address: http://www.ipgp.net

Hi

Here's the thing. Today my laptop was stolen from my car. Later I talked to my friend and he told me that I was online on skype. Then we tried calling it but it didn't pick up. However I'm pretty sure we got the IP my stolen computer was using. I tried calling the network provider but they refused to give me the address which I understand. Then I called the police and gave them the IP but i highly doubt that they will care the least.

My question is now: Is there any way to find the physical address myself, only using the IP?

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I've said, not without a court order. Time to change all your passwords...

Someone found out my name, city of residence all from an anonymous post on a internet message board. HOW DID THEY GET THAT INFORMATION?? Everything I read tells me my IP address doesnt reveal that information but somehow they got it. HOW? How can I stop this from happening in the future??

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim, your IP address doesn't reveal your name (most likely you did so when posting your comment), but it can (sometimes) give an approximate geographic location.

If I do a google search with my email address, I get a result pointing to "http://bgp.he.net". This site contains all the details I provided for registering a domain name with godaddy - that includes my name, address, postal code and phone number.

The name and address I provided with Godaddy had to be the same name and address associated with the credit card I used, so the information you would find this way from any email address is very probably accurate.

Made me very uncomfortable seeing that. Who are these "bgp" people and how come they have all these data?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Domain registration data is public info. It comes from the WHOIS database. Godaddy is not to blame.

IP changing is legal or illegal? Using proxy and changing IP address and using internet banking (Putting my password) is SAFE or Not??

EDITOR'S NOTE: There's nothing illegal about using a proxy, at least in the US. Other countries may have more restrictive laws. Not sure about India. And if your banking is done with HTTPS (via proxy or not) it should be safe.

What are you peple doing on face book? I wouldn't be cot dead on in it.
Brad