IP address lookup

[phillygirl]

Is there a way of finding out the person on the other end of the computer from the ip address? The only info I can see so far is the town, but not the business.

[Norm dePlume]

Is there a way of finding out the person on the other end of the computer from the ip address? The only info I can see so far is the town, but not the business.

If you have a warrant, or a National Security Letter, you can ask the ISP which customer was assigned that address at a given time.

[phillygirl]

If you have a warrant, or a National Security Letter, you can ask the ISP which customer was assigned that address at a given time.

*sigh*. Thanks. Was afraid so.

[Norm dePlume]

If someone is causing trouble, you can just report abuse to their ISP, who may or may not send them a nastygram.

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/Spam/finding-hackers-isp-using-ip-address.htm

[phillygirl]

If someone is causing trouble, you can just report abuse to their ISP, who may or may not send them a nastygram.

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/Spam/...ip-address.htm

Thanks. No, nothing so nefarious. Just was curious about something.

[scott]

Is there a way of finding out the person on the other end of the computer from the ip address? The only info I can see so far is the town, but not the business.

It depends on the business. Some ISPs have automatic reverse DNS entries to identify the company by the IP address (usually done in blocks), some IP blocks are actually owned by the companies themselves and that information is public. There are also various databases that log activity by IP address as a way to catch spam, trolls, etc. There's also a surprisingly effective method, send a letter to the ISP, reference a court proceeding, give a case number, and ask for the physical address of the IP.

[JB]

There's also a surprisingly effective method, send a letter to the ISP, reference a court proceeding, give a case number, and ask for the physical address of the IP.

When has that ever worked?

[scott]

When has that ever worked?

Hundreds of times in my experience. One of my sites was targeted by an employee of a much larger competitor and they slipped up and ran some fraudulent credit cards through the checkout process and it got the attention of my merchant account provider (this was in 2003). It was one thing to troll, it was something else entirely to troll and use flagged credit cards to try and shut down our business. When they identified a few key IPs I was able to link those IPs to a few dozen (out of almost a million) fraudulent transactions. That set into motion a RICO case against my competitor which plugged me into a network of government contractors that would look up any IP I asked for. When the case settled (no settlement for us because those asshats are still in jail) I just used the case number to request information on any IP I thought would be connected to the case and I got the information. I was able to get the physical address for almost any IP for another 3 years as long as I could somehow connect it to this case. Over the next few years I learned that I could get physical addresses most of the time just by referencing a case number that was active just by asking the ISP directly. I never tried to use a fake case number and I never tried to use an active case number that wasn't connected to me in some way but I suspect that would not be an issue in many requests. Sometimes I typed the case number in wrong and the contractor sent the information anyway.

It was terribly inefficient, all requests had to be done by mail and all of the mail had to come from my attorney, all on his letterhead and all mailed from his office. I'm sure most of that has changed by now but I bet the same set of clerks who processed my valid requests are still working the system the same way and most of them are lazy. They don't look up the case number, they just enter the case number into their system and if it's not rejected they process the request.

[phillygirl]

It's honestly nothing so major. I thought maybe the ip's had a business name connected to them that you could see online. Nothing that I want to go to real trouble for.

[JB]

Hundreds of times in my experience. <snip>

Was there some kind of blanket carte blanche warrant attached to your case? I just can't see how the nerds of the Internet would let an invasion of privacy go unanswered once they found out an ISP would do such a thing.

I'd imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of those guys lining up and attacking any ISP that would breach someone's privacy in that way. Especially Internet nerd privacy.

[scott]

Was there some kind of blanket carte blanche warrant attached to your case? I just can't see how the nerds of the Internet would let an invasion of privacy go unanswered once they found out an ISP would do such a thing.

I'd imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of those guys lining up and attacking any ISP that would breach someone's privacy in that way. Especially Internet nerd privacy.

I guess it's a good thing I never told them which ISPs gave up the information.