What an IP lookup shows
An IP lookup reads public records about an address: where IP databases place it, which network owns it and how that network is used. It describes a connection, not a person.
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Country, region and city | Where IP geolocation databases place the address. The country is usually right; the city is an estimate. |
| Postcode and coordinates | The centre of the estimated area, often a city centre. Never a street or a building. |
| Time zone | The time zone of the estimated location. |
| ISP / organisation | The company that holds the address: an internet provider, a mobile carrier, a business or a hosting firm. |
| ASN | The number of the network (autonomous system) that announces the address on the internet. |
| Host name | The reverse DNS name set by the network owner, if there is one. |
| Network type | A best guess, from the network owner's name, of whether it is a hosting provider or data centre, or an internet provider. |
What an IP lookup doesn't show
An IP address identifies a connection. On its own, a lookup cannot show:
- a person's name, or who was using the connection;
- a street address: the location is approximate and often points to the provider's nearest hub;
- contact details such as an email address or phone number;
- browsing history or what the connection was used for;
- which device behind a router sent the traffic.
Who can link an IP to a customer
Only the internet provider that assigned the address can link it to an account, and it generally shares that only when the law requires it. If an address is misusing your own service, contact the network owner's abuse team, which you can find in the WHOIS record for the address.
How accurate is IP location?
IP location is an estimate built from registry records, network routing and data shared by providers. The country is right for most addresses. The region is usually close. The city can be tens of kilometres out, and sometimes in the next region.
Results are less exact for mobile networks, which route many users through a few gateways, and for providers that share one address between many customers (carrier-grade NAT). Business networks may show the head office. Proxies and other relays show their own location, not the user's.
Addresses also move. When a block of addresses is sold or reassigned, databases can take weeks to catch up, so a new address may show its old country for a while.
Why look up an IP address?
- Troubleshooting: see which network and region your traffic or a server's traffic comes from.
- Checking a proxy: confirm the exit IP of a proxy is in the country and network you expect.
- Reading your own logs: put a location and owner to addresses in your server, firewall or sign-in logs.
- Reporting abuse: find the network owner of an address that is misusing your service, so you can contact its abuse team.
- Allow-lists: check that an address you are about to allow belongs to the network you think it does.
Test the exit IP of your proxies →
IPv4 vs IPv6 lookups
This lookup works for both versions. IPv4 addresses look like 8.8.8.8; IPv6 addresses look like 2001:4860:4860::8888, and you can paste them in their short or full form.
Location data for IPv6 is often less detailed than for IPv4, because providers hand out very large IPv6 ranges. A connection that has both versions can show a different city or network for each one.
Check whether your connection has IPv6 →
Private and reserved addresses
Some ranges only work inside a local network or are set aside for special uses. They have no public location or owner, so the lookup marks them as private or reserved:
- 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16: home and office networks
- 100.64.0.0/10: shared by providers behind carrier-grade NAT
- 127.0.0.0/8 and ::1: loopback, the device itself
- 169.254.0.0/16 and fe80::/10: link-local addresses
- fc00::/7: unique local IPv6 addresses
IP lookup from the command line
Our /ip endpoint prints your own public IP as plain text, and /ip.json returns it with its country code. They show the address the request came from, so they cannot look up another IP; use the form on this page for that.
For another address, whois shows the network owner and its abuse contact, and dig -x shows the host name.
# Your own IP curl https://t7proxy.com/ip curl https://t7proxy.com/ip.json # Owner and host name of another IP whois 8.8.8.8 dig -x 8.8.8.8 +short
