Can 'just anyone' find out your IP address? Why, and what can they do with it?

Question

I was reading the answers to a question yesterday and someone made this comment...

"I just tracked your IP so I know where you live. I just forwarded your comments to your local police."

A couple of years ago I finally entered the computer world so I'm basically pretty clueless about a lot of computer common knowledge.

Can people on Yahoo! Answers find out where you live, or whatever personal information without reviewing your questions/answers?

What does a person have to do to keep their info private?

Answer 1

They can find your country of origin and your service provider, which can narrow your location down sometimes. For instance, my service provider only operates in a few cities here in the south.

As far as finding someone's general location by their IP address, here is a good place to start:

http://aruljohn.com/track.pl

Answer 2

they dont need your IP addy to steal your information. they just need to dig through your trash for that.

in other words. no.

Answer 3

Well another member cannot readily track your IP address but Yahoo certainly can... anyone with a web page (Yahoo in the case of Answers) can note the IP address of anyone that has connected to it. Now.. an IP address is just a bunch of numbers... so just anybody can't trace you from that. Mine is 192.168.16.15. You've no idea who I am by that information and neither do the police. If you tried to ping me you would get the IP issued by my ISP... not my network ID... (the one above)... so that "ping" only narrows it down to the members of my internal network... but not to me. .. a firewall blocks outside from inside. Dont worry, I get a new IP address every time I log on.

So.... Your internet service provider issues you with an IP address when you log onto their network... this is done automatically by a DHCP server... so you log in with your user name and password and your ISP's server issues you with an IP address for access to their network.

For the police to trace you personally, they need access to your ISP's records. For that to happen, they need a reasonable cause to pursue you.

To keep your info private is more difficult. You have to be someone else... or appear to be someone else.

Answer 4

You can locate someone by a general geographic location using something such as: http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?Ge...

However, that will never always be accurate either.

You couldn't actually find exactly where they lived unless you had internal access to that particular Internet service providers system.

Answer 5

YES! but i dont know about just regular people finding it cause the police and stuff can find it

Answer 6

..Um..I'm not sure.O.o

I don't think so,but,then again I could be wrong..

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 7

Just anyone? NO, people with forensic computer skills, AND warrants, yes.

Answer 8

Usually without a port number theres not much a script kiddie can do now that modern computers block basic ms-dos attacks etc. They could ping your PC which i am guessing would tell them your internet is online (becuase they replied). Google would be pretty good here.

Some websites can track what IP has been on which pages and if neccesary ban them as they are almost unique.

Answer 9

The IP address can be traced to your exchange (presuming ADSL - and if cable then the same thing but I can't remember the name!) and no further without your ISP giving those details. So no big deal really.

HTH

Answer 10

it is possible.  For instance, if you go to a website the owner of that site can see what site you left before going there and where you went when you left.  He can also see what your IP address and even what brand browser you used.

  As far as someone saying they can see your IP by posting here, don't believe them.  Unless they are an admin for Yahoo.

People can also track your info if you own a domain name that is unlocked and by the domain part of your email address if it is registered.